


The Wahei Transcripts

by Jay2KWinger



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay2KWinger/pseuds/Jay2KWinger
Summary: The Dark times have arrived. The Warlock Wahei Ohr seeks knowledge and insight to forestall a Second Collapse, but her methods and approach have her under investigation by the Praxic Order.
Kudos: 12





	1. Vanguard Guardian Database - POI #0247 - Wahei Ohr

**Author's Note:**

> Foreword: I've been especially active in the r/DestinyJournals subreddit as of late, thanks to so much hype from Bungie's trailers and ViDocs for Destiny 2: Beyond Light, and began writing a number of different shorts. I'm going to start re-posting them here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal - updates a database entry - annotates the same with observations and opinions - is rebuked for same...

ACCESS: RESTRICTED  
DECRYPTION KEY: 86XK7C3EBQ0$AUN-326  
AGENT(S): AUN-326  
REP #: 061-POI-0247

// NOTE: pictographic records of POI#0247 are out of date //   
// Update as soon as convenient //  
// If inconvenient, update all the same //

Name: Wahei Ohr  
Ghost: Vizier  
Class: Voidwalker Warlock  
Race: Reefborn Awoken  
Gender: Female  
Height: 178cm  
Eyes: Dark Blue  
Skin: Purple  
Hair: Silver  
Age: ~150Y since First Rez  
Current Whereabouts: Presently active in field for ERI-223/VIP#1315 activities (cf. REP #134-149-PARAC-CONT)

**PROFILE**

POI #0247 works closely with Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey. //(NOTE: Possibly she's a member of the Hidden? Corroborate with reports. --AUN-326)// The current Warlock Vanguard provided training in the use of Void Light not long after POI#0247's arrival in the Last City. Apart from brief sorties during the House of Devils Siege (e.g. Battle of Twilight Gap), POI #0247 primarily worked in the archives and libraries of the Warlock Orders. Worked variously alongside the Gensym Scribes, Thanatonauts, Praxic Order, and Cryptarchs, though never pledged to any specific order. Since return of ERI-223 from Lunar Hive Realm (viz. "Hellmouth"), POI#0247 has become more active in field work, usually in scourging Hive and/or Taken presence at flashpoints.

POI #0247 shows singular focus during research, often working to the point of exhaustion. When departing the Last City for field work, has often spent days out of contact before returning and filing copious and extensive reports on findings, often including minutiae which are of only passing relevance. Endeavors to project approachable demeanor when meeting with others, friendly and personable, though has tendency to speak at length about whatever comes to mind in a stream of consciousness, only stopping when requested or ordered to do so by someone else.  
Surveillance has shown the Warlock tends to avoid Crucible training, despite repeated demands from Lord Shaxx.

POI #0247 is known to visit the Tower Annex, and has been providing reports on the activities of VIP#1315. //(NOTE: She emphasizes that said reports are submitted of her own free will, and not at the demands of the Praxic Order. Even so, her reports are sparse, given she has little interaction with the man. --AUN-326)//

IKO-006 has stated that POI #0247 is one of the foremost living experts of the Hive besides ERI-223, due to her work with same.

 **NOTABLE ACTIVITIES**

The Warlock was Risen in one of the ship graveyards of the Reef, believed to have died at some point during the Reef's colonization by the Awoken. After First Rez, she was given a ship and sent to the Last City, an exile that was only lifted during the House of Wolves Uprising. POI#0247 was known to have offered her services in helping the Reef in the wake of the Battle of Saturn, but was still kept at arm's length by Reef forces, apparently at behest of the Queen's Wrath. POI#0247 has insisted her loyalty now is to the Last City and its people, though has been heard to admit she feels an "obligation" to aid the Reef where she can. ~~//(NOTE: Conflicting loyalties make for opportunities, but not just for us. Continue monitoring for signs of subversion. --AUN-326)//~~

Following ERI-223's return from the Hellmouth, POI #0247 began working closely with her to study the Hive. As a result, the Warlock was instrumental in operations to decapitate the command structure of the Lunar Hive broods (viz "Blood of Oryx" "Spawn of Crota" "Hidden Swarm"), and was a part of OP-VNGD-RAID-2014-LUN. When the Taken War began, POI #2047's work with ERI-223 remained a key factor in studying and understanding how to counteract Hive defenses aboard the Hive Throne Ship (viz "Dreadnought") and entering into enemy VIP#2015's Ascendant Realm. Again, the Warlock was brought in as part of OP-VNGD-RAID-2015-DRE. Following conclusion of operation, POI #0247 worked with ERI-223 to construct WOS-002-TOM, though is not presently in possession of same. ~~//(NOTE: Reports from both RAID operations vary, it is unclear if POI#0247 was the one who landed the fatal blows on either enemy VIP. Even her own meticulous reports leave out this detail. And what happened to that weapon? It wasn't with her when she disappeared during the Red War, and we have been unable to locate it in the wreckage of the Old Tower. I don't like uncertainties. --AUN-326)//~~

At the start of the Red War, POI #0247 was in the field, investigating Hive presence in the catacombs beneath Old Paris. The Warlock was out of contact following the Red Legion's conquest of the Last City, though emerged some three to four weeks following the Traveler's Awakening. Did not return to Last City until more than a week later, being debriefed by Vanguard at that time. (see AAR-OPC-CAT-0247) ~~//(NOTE: Her report on her time in the catacombs lacks her usual over-abundance of detail. What is she hiding? --AUN-326)//~~

POI #0247's activities were unremarkable until Mars Conflict began. Despite lack of initial authorization from Vanguard, POI #0247 became extremely active in helping eliminate Hive forces in Hellas Basin (viz. Grasp of Nokris). Became requested as "priority asset" from AI-COM/RSPN during suppression operations. (viz. Escalation Protocol) (see reports under heading "AAR-2017-HB-EP-####") Reports from other Guardians in the field during these operations indicate an increased level of viciousness from POI#0247 compared with pre-Red War behaviors. IKO-006 believes this to be indicative of PTSD following Lightloss in Paris Catacombs, but POI #0247 has refused offers of psychiatric counselling.

The escape of VIP #4503 and his followers from Prison of Elders triggered another outburst of uncharacteristic activity from POI #0247. While VIP #2014 and many other recently Risen Guardians (viz. Old Russian and Red War Cohorts) were drawn to the Tangled Shore to seek justice ~~//(NOTE: "Vengeance," more like. --AUN-326)//~~ for the death of Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6, POI #0247 seemed motivated more to hunt down VIP#4506 and later his consort VIP#4616. During this time period, POI#0247 dedicated herself to eradicating their brood wherever they turned up across the system.

While POI #0247 was not selected by the Queen's Wrath for OP-VNGD-RAID-2018-DC, the Warlock was active over the next several months within the Dreaming City at the behest of Reef forces. Reports show that she was often active during operations around the Blind Well, though POI #0247's own reports of her activities during this time period have been sparse, though detailed when submitted. //(NOTE: Other reports indicate she was present but passive-- observing?-- during certain operations. (cf. AAR-DC-BW-6047, AAR-DC-ST-2487) --AUN-326)//

When VIP #3801 began inviting Guardians to take part in "entertainments" aboard the Leviathan, POI #0247 showed only vague interest, until #3801 requested Guardian assistance in dealing with the threat of VIP #6497. (see AAR-OP-RAID-2019-LEV) Following conclusion of operation, POI #0247 accepted #3801's invitation to remain aboard the Leviathan so the Warlock could study OOP-2019-COS. After conclusion of her study, POI #0247 departed the Leviathan and has not officially been back since. ~~//(NOTE: Suddenly her reports are back to her usual over-detail. What changed? Also, I have doubts about whether she's been back. There have been reports she's been seen wielding a weapon that matches the description of WOS-003-BJ. --AUN-326)//~~

Resurgence of Hive in the Ocean of Storms Lunar region again marked a return of the Warlock to field work. POI #0247 has been working closely with ERI-223 to investigate the Scarlet Keep and Hive activities within, including the Necropolis and Pit beneath same. Unofficial reports suggest that POI #0247 had a hand in developing the anti-phantasmal (viz "Dreambane") enchantments for armors and weaponry. (cf. reports under heading "AAR-2019-LUN-NH-####") No official reports have been given by ERI-223 or by Vanguard to confirm this hypothesis. POI #0247 has shown marked interest in the Pyramid found beneath the Scarlet Keep. ~~//(NOTE: In my opinion, a very unhealthy interest. This deserves closer monitoring. --AUN-326)//~~

**PREFERRED/RECENT ARSENAL**

  * **WOS-003-BJ** \- "Bad Juju" - UNCONFIRMED. It is not currently known if (or how) POI #0247 came to acquire this weapon.
  * **SR-MAR-Kin03** \- "Niflheim Frost" - Acquired during activities while participating in Mars Conflict.
  * **HC-DC-Arc04** \- "Waking Vigil" - Awarded to the Warlock by the Reef Techeuns for her assistance in helping charge the Blind Well.
  * **GL-LUN-Sol08** \- "Love and Death" - Constructed with ERI-223 for use in anti-phantasmal operations (viz "Nightmare Hunts")



~~//(NOTE: Again, the Warlock is known to have helped construct WOS-002-TOM, the whereabouts of which are unknown. Something as powerful and steeped in Dark energies as that being loose in the wild does not bode well. --AUN-326)//~~

**PREFERRED/RECENT ARMOR**

The Warlock primarily prefers armor and robes from the "Liminal Voyager" line, but augments these with a helm of exotic rarity dubbed "Verity's Brow." All are typically shaded to resemble Hive armor; during the Scarlet Keep Incident she was seen to have re-shaded them to match the coloration of the Hidden Swarm.

**KNOWN ABILITIES**

POI #0247 has mastered all attunements of Voidwalking, appearing to prefer the Attunement of Fission, though also favors the Attunement of Hunger. Per reports from IKO-006, the Warlock has eschewed studying other elements, preferring instead to further hone and deepen her understanding of the Void. ~~//(NOTE: The last Warlock who showed this much interest in both the Void and the Hive was Toland. I'm just saying. --AUN-326)//~~

With her study of Hive lore and magic, POI#0247 possesses the ability to reverse-devise Hive magic and Ascendant Plane portals. This was further augmented during Dreaming City operations following experimentation with tinctures derived from Queensfoil Unofficial reports suggest she may even be aware of dimensionally-adjacent architecture (viz "ascendant platforms") without needing to use Queensfoil, though interacting with same still requires dosage from a tincture.

**FIRETEAM MEMBERS**

**Donovan Morgan - Striker/Sentinel Titan - POI #0268**

  * Known to frequent VIP #1315's Gambit and Reckoning. (see REP #134-POI-0268)
  * Presently active in field for ERI-223/VIP#1315 activities (cf. REP #134-149-PARAC-CONT)



**Rega-7 - Gunslinger Hunter**

  * One of the few people that can easily derail the Warlock's rambling tangents.
  * Presently active in field for ERI-223/VIP#1315 activities (cf. REP #134-149-PARAC-CONT.)



**Sergei Bolvan - Striker Titan**

  * Deceased due to Lightloss during Red Legion's conquest of Last City.



**Shaman-9 - Dawnblade Warlock**

  * Quite forthcoming with information about POI #0247, expressing concern for her well-being following Red War Lightloss.
  * Presently active in field for ERI-223/VIP#1315 activities (cf. REP #134-149-PARAC-CONT.) 



**Yurei - Arcstrider Hunter**

  * Mute, relies on Ghost to speak for her.
  * Primarily active in Dreaming City, continuing suppression of enemy forces in paracausal time loop. (viz. "Riven's Curse") 



~~//(NOTE: Regarding her fireteam-- both Morgan and Rega have not been forthcoming with information about POI #0247. Loyal to their teammate, I suppose. Likewise for Yurei, but I suspect she and her Ghost were using her muteness to maliciously refuse cooperation.)//~~

**KNOWN ASSOCIATES**

~~//(NOTE: I'll write up the details of her association with the Vanguard later. Remove this annotation later and append appropriate update as needed. --AUN-326)//~~

**Charlie Tango - Mercenary Thief - POI #0320**

  * Inveterate thief and smuggler. No known solid allegiances.
  * Suspected Lightbearer.
  * Known to have aided POI#0247 in acquisition of illicit artifacts.
  * Currently wanted for questioning by Praxic Order re: disappearance of proscribed texts and artifacts from Praxic Archives.
  * (see REP #326-POI-0320)



**Emperor Calus - Exiled Cabal Monarch -VIP #3801**

  * (see attached files REP #326-VIP-3801, REP #761-RAID-2019-LEV, REP #0247-OOP-2019-COS)



**Eris Morn - Bane of the Swarm**

  * (see attached files REP #326-ERI-223, REP #616-LUN-2014, REP #616-DRE-2015, REP #616-LUN-2019)



**Petra Venj - Queen's Wrath**

  * (see attached files REP #326-VEN-405, REP #694-VO-2014, REP #694-VO-2015, REP #694-DC-2018)



**Rhodes-6 - Adherent of the Praxic Order**

  * Primary POC between the Praxic Order and POI #0247
  * Granted POI#0247 access to the Praxic Library and other authorized artifacts, though this was prior to the Red War.
  * Has had little contact with her since Red War, she has not responded to his attempts to reach out to her.



**The Spider - The Shore's Only Law - VIP #3248**

  * (see attached files REP #326-VIP-3248, REP #267-TS-2018, REP #267-AAR-TS-4506, REP #267-AAR-TS-4616)



**IN SUMMATION**

For all of POI #0247's accolades and accomplishments, the marked change following Lightloss in the Red War, and her suspicious behavior since is enough for the Praxic Order to recommend that POI #0247 be removed from field operations. At the very least, psychiatric counseling should be mandated before return to field work be authorized. Additionally, the Praxic Order requests that POI #0247's vault be turned out on suspicion that she is in possession of proscribed weapons, texts, and artifacts. --AUN-326

**ADDENDUM**

Aunor, while your work on maintaining this record is commendable, your repeated annotations throughout are unprofessional at best, and at worst showcase a noted bias. Wahei's change in behavior since Lightloss has been noted, and the Vanguard has repeatedly asked her to seek counseling, but her willfulness is surpassed only by the Young Wolf. Her talents and abilities have served the Last City above everything else, and that has not changed.

Your requests are hereby denied. Make the corrections to this report and remove your annotations, or we will have to have words concerning your access to Vanguard databases. --IKO-006


	2. Transcripts of a Poker Game and a Back Alley Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - discusses poker variants in the Last City - makes a serious wager - meets with a thief and smuggler - hires the same for a job...

ACCESS: RESTRICTED  
DECRYPTION KEY: 83VT2P4AN0$AUN-326  
> REMOTE DATABASE TEXT-ONLY ACCESS INITIALIZED.  
> WELCOME, USER "PRAXICTEMPLAR".  
> PLEASE ENTER COMMAND.

> open private directory "ohr case"

> DIRECTORY LOCKED.  
>PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD.

> ****************

> DIRECTORY UNLOCKED.  
> PLEASE ENTER COMMAND.

> open transc "parlour-backroom03-0247"  
\----------------  
TYPE: Transcription  
DESCRIPTION: Conversation between various parties in a back room of The Parlour (Magpie District, Last City)  
PARTIES: Six [6]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Sleight-3 [S3]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate "Lady" Olu Alderdice [OA] (POI #0195); One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Rega-7 [R7]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247); One [1] human, designate Charlie Tango [CT] (POI #0320); One [1] human, designate Paul Kent [PK]

ASSOCIATIONS: Alderdice, "Lady" Olu; Dusk Tarot; Kent, Paul; Ohr, Wahei; Parlour; Rega-7; Sleight-3; Tango, Charlie

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//  
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

[PK:01] And I believe that hand goes to me. Trips treys, plus two trumps, Glory and Valor.

[S3:01] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

[OA:01] On the contrary, my dear Mister Kent. Ten-high four-flush, with a Tyrant trump.

[S3:02] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] How the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] did you get the Tyrant?

[CT:01] Ha! Olu, you complete [EXPLETIVE DELETED]. You've the Devil's own luck.

[OA:02] LADY Olu, if you please, Mister Tango.

[CT:02] Only judges and magistrates call me "Mister Tango." I've told you, your ladyship, you can just call me Charlie.

[OA:03] Of course.

[door opens]

[PK:02] Rega! So good to see you.

[R7:01] Back at you, Paul. Like I'd turn down a chance to see you for an evening.

[CT:03] Rega-7, glad you could join us.

[OA:04] Quite. I was almost getting bored with taking glimmer off these three.

[S3:03] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

[OA:05] Language, Mister Three. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

[CT:04] 'Course he don't. Exos don't have lips.

[R7:02] Charlie, Sleight... Lady Alderdice.

[S3:04] Rega. Who's your friend?

[R7:03] Well, Paul's met her. Wahei, this is Sleight-3--

[S3:05] [grunts]

[R7:04] The infamous Lady Alderdice, and that's Charlie Tango. Everyone, this is my teammate, Wahei Ohr.

[S3:06] Or what?

[WO:01] Just 'Ohr.'

[S3:07] Or what?

[WO:02] Just 'Ohr.'

[S3:08] [pause] Or what?

[WO:03] Just 'Ohr.'

[pause]

[WO:04] I have all day. How long do you have?

[CT:05] Heard that one a few times, have you?

[WO:05] Just a bit. And would you be THE Charlie Tango?

[CT:06] I object to the "THE." Tells me I'm not keepin' as low a profile as I'd like.

[WO:06] When the Corsairs found out you'd gotten into their vaults and stolen armaments and sold them off in the black market, it didn't take them long to figure out who did it. You could count the number of people who could get away with it on one hand, and of those, there's only one not presently in the Prison of Elders, and actually, that's not accurate, since it occurs to me there's been reports that someone managed to break into Vanguard vaults and then there was all the chaos that the Kell's Scourge managed to wreak before they were stomped out after they got into Botza District--

[R7:05] Not the time, Wahei.

[beat]

[R7:06] Anyway, care to deal me in, boys and lady?

[WO:07] Me, too, please.

[CT:07] Pull up a chair.

[sounds of chairs scraping, glimmer and silver clinking, chips clattering]

[OA:06] The game is Dusk Tarot Poker with a double box. Are you familiar, Miss Ohr?

[WO:08] Indeed I am, at least in theory. I spent a few years studying cartomancy purely for the novelty, though I was never able to specifically confirm the efficacy of the practice as a means of determining the pattern of Fate, but then that could just be due to the nature of paracausality upon such things, after all, the saying is that 'Guardians make their own Fate,' so having a Lightbearer attempt a card reading would probably skew the results, but without further evidence to confirm this, I can't really determine anything--

[R7:07] Not the time, Wahei.

[WO:09] Right. Dusk Tarot Poker. Same hands as in standard 52-card poker, played with the Dusk Tarot deck. Suits are staves, motes, chalices, swords, and 'trumps,' the last of which is comprised of the major arcana. Modified rules allow for four-card flushes and straights, if the fifth card is a trump--

[PK:03] I think that covers the basics--

[WO:10] --depending on the place, some rules explicitly place the trumps as the first-among-equals in the suits, while others only play the first fourteen major arcana and discard the rest and the Fool, and others will include the others and treat them as 'lesser trumps' which are out-ranked by the 'greater trumps'--

[R7:08] Not the time, Wahei.

[WO:11] Right. Anyway, Tarot Poker with a double box. Five-card draw. Rules as stated, but two 'boxed cards' will be dealt, one each after each round of betting.

[R7:09] Deal the cards, please. Not you, Lady Alderdice. No offense, but I don't trust the inventor of the Tricksleeves with the deal.

[OA:07] I choose to take that as a compliment, Miss Seven. For our game tonight, Miss Ohr, we're playing with the first-among-equals with the greater trumps. Fixed-limit bets.

[S3:09] Ante up.

// ANNOTATION: TRUNCATING TRANSCRIPT. SUMMARY BELOW. //  
[S3 takes 3 cards. R7 takes 2. PK, WO, OA, and CT all take 1.]  
[Opening ante of 200g. Fixed-limit of 100g per raise.]  
[R7 and WO both raise. All stay.]  
[First box card is Page of Wands.]  
[WO raises. All stay.]  
[Second box is Captain of Chalices.]  
[R7 and WO both raise. PK and CT both fold.]  
[Per Dusk Tarot Poker rules, players who fold must reveal their hand.]  
[CT had a high card of Eight of Swords with no trumps.]  
[PK had a pair of fives with one trump (VIII Glory).]  
// TRANSCRIPT RESUMES. //

[S3:10] Lads, you know the rules. Turn your cards over or pay the penalty to keep 'em down.

[CT:08] Right.

[sound of cards overturning]

[R7:10] I see why you folded, Charlie. Fat lot of nothing in that hand.

[OA:08] And it was wise to fold, Mister Kent. A pair of nines with no trumps won't get you a win this round.

[S3:11] Rega, you in?

[R7:11] Yeah, see that thirty.

[WO:12] I'll see it.

[OA:09] All right then. Call.

[sound of cards overturning]

[S3:12] I have a pair of fives, plus two trumps. Queen and Lovers.

[R7:12] Damn. If it weren't for that second trump, I'd have you, Sleight. Pair of tens and the Scribe.

[OA:10] Ah, but I have you beat, Mister Three. Although I only have a pair of threes, I believe Tyrant and Valor beats your pair of trumps.

[S3:13] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] How do you [EXPLETIVE DELETED] keep doing it?

[WO:13] Sorry to disappoint, everyone, but I believe I have you both beat.

[sound of cards overturning]

[OA:11] Oh, I say!

[WO:14] Flooded house, sevens over trumps. Ketch, Glory, Hermit.

[sound of chips clattering]

[S3:14] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

[R7:13] Ha ha! Atta girl, Wahei!

[S3:15] Beginner's luck!

[CT:09] Or she does some Light-born trickery with the odds.

[sounds of protest]

[CT:10] Hey, hey, don't tell me it ain't possible. "Guardians make their own Fate" and all that--

[R7:14] That's not how it works, and you know it, Charlie--

[WO:15] Actually, the paracausal nature of the Light means that it's entirely possible. Theoretically, we could easily change the order of the cards, or make the skies open up with thunder and lightning or clear the weather, or make crops grow stronger--

[R7:15] Not the time, Wahei. And besides, we all know that it's not that simple. Every card-playing Guardian would negate everyone else's efforts, people would start shouting, and then they'd take it to the Crucible to settle their differences.

[OA:12] Spoken like someone with experience to it, Miss Seven.

[R7:16] Maybe.

[WO:16] Charlie, if you think Guardians are using their powers to cheat you in poker, then why do you play with us?

[CT:11] Maybe I like to live dangerously.

[WO:17] From what I've heard, that does track.

[CT:12] Again, I don't like the notion people've heard of me.

[WO:18] Then you'd hardly be getting work, would you?

[CT:13] What do you know about my work?

[WO:19] As I hear it, you managed to hijack a treasure skiff belonging to the Spider, and not only got away with it, but were able to sell it back to him.

[beat]

[CT:14] That's true.

[WO:20] Not only that, but you impressed him well enough that he'll still do business with you, in spite of all that.

[CT:15] Spider likes knowing there's someone who can pull off jobs like that.

[WO:21] I might want to talk more about your work, Charlie.

[beat]

[CT:16] Why?

[WO:22] Not now. Let's play another hand! I like this game.

[sound of chips clattering, cards shuffling, being dealt]

// ANNOTATION: TRUNCATING TRANSCRIPT. SUMMARY BELOW. //  
[S3 takes 3. PK and R7 takes 2. WO and CT take 1. OA takes no cards.]  
[Same ante and rate as before.]  
[R7 and WO both raise. S3 folds.]  
[S3 had a high card of Nine of Motes, with two trumps (IV The Tyrant and IX The Hermit).]  
[First box card is Six of Chalices.]  
[WO raises by two. All stay.]  
[Second box is Three of Swords.]  
[R7 and WO both raise. CT raises by two. OA folds.]  
[OA had a high card of Ten of Chalices and two trumps (III The Queen and VII The Ketch).]  
// TRANSCRIPT RESUMES. //

[PK:04] So where's that leave us?

[S3:16] We're at a thousand to call.

[CT:17] You still wanna stay in, girls?

[R7:17] You know I do, Charlie.

[CT:18] What about you, Warlock? You still in?

[WO:23] Of course. In fact, I raise again.

[R7:18] I'll see that.

[CT:19] You're not gonna bluff me, Warlock. I'll see you and raise you.

[WO:24] I'll raise you again.

[R7:19] Oof. Ah... I'll... fold.

[sound of cards overturning]

[S3:17] Looks like you had a pair of aces, and the Techeun trump. Huh. 

[PK:05] You folded with that?

[R7:20] Gettin' a bit too high for my tastes.

[CT:20] You can't bluff me out! I raise you again.

[WO:25] Call.

[S3:18] You don't have enough on the table to match him.

[WO:26] Huh. So I don't. Tell you what. If I lose to you, Charlie, then I'll owe you a favor.

[CT:21] Oh yeah? I might need some access into some of the restricted areas of the Tower...

[R7:21] Wahei...

[WO:27] I know, Rega. I know. That's fair, Charlie.

[CT:22] All right--

[WO:28] But, if I beat you, then you owe ME a favor. Fair's fair.

[CT:23] I'm not the one who needs to--

[OA:13] Come on, Charlie. Fair's fair. If you're not confident, then we can just--

[CT:24] Nah, nah, you're not bluffing me out. Fine. Favor on the table for the winner.

[WO:29] Shake on it.

[CT:25] Fine.

[beat]

[sound of cards overturning]

[WO:30] Two pair. Fives and Queens.

[CT:26] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

[S3:19] High card, Kell of Wands. Even with two trumps, that's not gonna beat two pair.

[R7:22] Banking on getting the four-straight and a trump, were you, Charlie?

[CT:27] You got the Devil's own luck, Warlock.

[WO:31] Maybe so!

[PK:06] Congratulations, Miss Ohr.

[S3:20] Another roun~XXX  
\----------------

> open transc "parlour-alley-0247"

\----------------  
TYPE: Transcription  
DESCRIPTION: Conversation recorded in alley behind The Parlour (Magpie District, Last City)  
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI#0247); One [1] human, designate Charlie Tango [CT] (POI#0320)

ASSOCIATIONS: Mahal, Aunor; Ohr, Wahei; Parlour; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Rega-7; Tango, Charlie; Toland; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//  
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

[CT:01] --the hell did you get a full trump flush?

[WO:01] Just luck.

[CT:02] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] No one's that lucky. You cheated.

[WO:02] The only cards I touched were my own.

[CT:03] That's nothing to a Lightbearer.

[WO:03] Oh? Do you have experience with that sort of thing, Charlie?

[beat]

[CT:04] What do you mean by that?

[WO:04] I think you know exactly what I mean, Charlie.

[beat]

[CT:05] I keep that kind of thing secret.

[WO:05] So I've noticed. And I'm not in the habit of telling secrets.

[CT:06] Really. From what I saw in there, you tend to run your mouth a lot.

[WO:06] I do talk a lot. But I never tell secrets.

[beat]

[CT:07] Right. What do you want?

[WO:07] I have a job for you. I need you to get me two things.

[CT:08] I'm waiting for the catch.

[WO:09] Why do you assume there's a catch?

[CT:09] One, it's me you're having do this. People don't come to Charlie Tango for jobs that are above board.

[WO:10] True enough.

[CT:10] Second, you got a reputation, Warlock. If this were something you could do yourself, you wouldn't be coming to me.

[WO:11] Ah, well, I could easily get what I need by myself.

[beat]

[CT:11] Still waiting on the catch.

[WO:12] If I walk in and take out what I want, then it draws attention I'd rather avoid right now.

[CT:12] Still waiting.

[WO:13] They're in the Praxic Archives.

[beat]

[CT:13] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]

[WO:14] Yes.

[CT:14] So if you were to walk in, the Praxic Order would be asking questions.

[WO:15] Yes. Same as if I were to send someone like Rega in to do it. And then I've got one of my friends in trouble with the Praxic Order.

[CT:15] And yet you have no problem dropping me in the cack?

[WO:16] You're not a friend of mine.

[beat]

[CT:16] Harsh. But true.

[WO:17] And also, you're already on their radar.

[CT:17] Also true.

[beat]

[CT:18] This counts as your favor, you know.

[WO:18] Of course.

[CT:19] What is it you need?

[WO:19] There's an artifact the Praxic Order has kept in their archives since the end of the Taken War. It's called the Traitor's Die. A divination object, a waxen avian skull inscribed with runes.

[CT:20] Think I've heard of it. What's your interest in it?

[WO:20] That's not germane to the job, is it?

[beat]

[CT:21] Fine. What's the other thing?

[WO:21] A book. It'll be in the proscribed tomes section, because it was written by Toland.

[CT:22] That doesn't narrow it down.

[WO:22] It was mostly unfinished by the time of his disappearance beneath Luna. But it had been compiled from other proscribed studies by other exiled scholars. It was going to be about his discoveries on the nature of the Darkness itself.

[beat]

[CT:23] You're talking about the Umbra--

[WO:23] Yes. I'm surprised you've heard about it.

[CT:24] If it's illegal, chances are high I've heard of it.

[WO:24] Then you can get it for me.

[CT:25] What's your interest in it?

[WO:25] Again, not germane.

[CT:26] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] to that. You're talking about a book that killed its writer.

[WO:26] It didn't kill him. Ir Yût did that. And to be technical, she didn't completely kill him--

[CT:27] I didn't ask. And it doesn't matter. Anyone who knows about that book believes it's cursed.

[WO:27] You don't honestly believe that, Charlie.

[CT:28] Even if I don't, the Praxics find out I've even been in the same building as it, I'm gonna have that Mahal whackjob after me. You know? That Light-blinded lunatic what burned down a city block 'cuz those Yor-simps took a hostage--

[WO:28] I am familiar with Aunor Mahal. She's already investigating me.

[beat]

[CT:29] What for?

[WO:29] The usual reasons she investigates people.

[pause]

[CT:30] All right. I'll get your trinket and the damned book for you.

[WO:30] I'll leave a message with Sleight on where to leave them.

[CT:31] Good. Using a dead drop. 

[WO:31] I will leave additional payment for you.

[CT:32] I thought this was a favor?

[WO:32] That was just to get the conversation going. When it comes to making enemies of the Praxic Order, I feel additional compensation is necessary.

[CT:33] I'll leave a message with Kent on when the job's been done.

[WO:33] Pleasure doing business with you, Charlie.  
\----------------

> append last transc to "ct case"  
> lock directory  
> DIRECTORY LOCKED.  
> logout  
> THANK YOU FOR USING THE PRAXIC ORDER TEXT-ONLY DATABASE, USER "PRAXICTEMPLAR". BE BRAVE.


	3. Transcript of an Illicit Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - meets with a rogue lightbearer - discusses the efficacy of bone casting - defends the seeking of knowledge - refuses to tell secrets...

TYPE: Transcription  
DESCRIPTION: Conversation between persons of interest  
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247); One [1] Guardian-type, Class N/A [u.1] (VIP #1315)  
ASSOCIATIONS: Drifter; Magpie District; Mahal, Aunor; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Tango, Charlie; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//  
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS//

[footsteps pacing, rustling, waxen clattering]

[WO] You might as well step into the open. I know you're there.

[a metallic clink, then footsteps approaching]

[u.1] I'm impressed, sister. Those were prime sneakin' around moves I was using. [chuckles] How'd you know I was there?

[WO] Voidwalker.

[u.1] Uh huh. Sure. For all you knew, I could've been that hardliner Praxic chick--

[WO] If I thought you were Aunor, I wouldn't have said anything. I'd have just shot first.

[u.1] Huh. Awful ruthless.

[WO] There's nothing I could say to Aunor Mahal that would convince her that I'm not spiraling down a very Dark rabbit hole.

[u.1] And you're tellin' me you're not?

[WO] Just because someone isn't walking in the Light twenty-four-seven doesn't mean they're walking into the Deep Dark.

[another metallic clink]

[u.1] [chuckles] You're a strange one, sister.

[WO] Again, Voidwalker.

[more waxen clattering]

[WO] Interesting.

[scratching on paper]

[u.1] Never figured you for a Guardian that likes games of chance.

[WO] Who said I do?

[u.1] Well, I heard-tell from ol' Charlie that you did pretty well for yourself in a card game recently...

[WO] And you think there was any part of that which was "chance?"

[u.1] [chuckles] "Making your own chance," was it? I like you, sister.

[WO] Every Lightbearer at that table was manipulating the odds. I was the only one doing it consciously.

[u.1] And yet, I see you here, rollin' the bones like a born craps-shooter.

[WO] One bone. Just the one.

[u.1] You know, most bones that Guardians keep around ain't the safest thing. Like that big-ass one that Shaxx keeps in the Tower. Or the "rock" that Moondust carries all over the place.

[WO] You're not wrong.

[u.1] And you think playin' knucklebones with one of them is a good idea?

[WO] Again, you think there's any sort of game involved here?

[u.1] Sister, everything's part of the game.

[pause]

[WO] You have more insight than you let on.

[u.1] That's the one thing I never make secret. Not my fault if they don't realize it.

[WO] Or if they can't realize it.

[pause]

[more waxen clattering, then a metallic clink]

[u.1] So if you're not playing games with that, just what are you doing with it?

[sound of scratching on paper]

[WO] Perhaps I am seeking insight.

[u.1] Huh. Way I understand it, if you're gonna cast the bones, you use four ankle-bones. Not a bird's skull.

[WO] If you're going to "cast the bones" and not have the results skewed by the Light, you have to use special bones.

[pages turning]

[u.1] Whoa. Hey. I recognize that book.

[WO] Really? You are full of surprises.

[u.1] I make a point of learning about dangerous stuff. And that book is on the list. And not just mine.

[WO] Yes. That's why I had Charlie steal it for me.

[u.1] From the Praxic Order? [whistles] Sister, I thought the Hero of the Red War was crazy, but you're a whole different breed.

[WO] Voidwalker.

[u.1] What the hell do you even want that book for?

[WO] Insight. This was going to be Toland's seminal work on the Darkness, until his... demise.

[u.1] You know that he was cracked in the head, don't you?

[WO] One could make the argument that we're all "cracked in the head."

[u.1] You're not helping your case, sister.

[WO] The concepts and precepts in the book provide some details on how to interpret the die's meaning.

[pages turning]

[WO] Huh. And details on how one could craft more. Interesting.

[u.1] Do I even want to know what you're planning?

[WO] I plan the same thing you do, only I'm not solely concerned with saving my own skin.

[u.1] That's a bit harsh, sister.

[WO] It's a harsh world, "brother."

[u.1] [sighs] That's the truest thing, isn't it?

[a metallic clink]

[u.1] [grunts] Well, whatever you're planning, if it involves that book, I want no part of it. Catch you around, sister.

[footsteps receding, waxen clattering]

[WO] You know, this book has a lot of interesting things in it, Majhul. Even ways one could sever one's connection to their Ghost without needing to kill it.

[pause]

[footsteps approaching]

[u.1] What was that?

[WO] I said, the book contains a lot of interesting information, such as severing--

[u.1] Not that.

[WO] You've gone by a lot of different names in your ages, haven't you?

[u.1] How do you know about that one?

[WO] Voidwalker.

[u.1] Pardon my Ulurant, but that's a load of [EXPLETIVE DELETED]. How do you know it?

[WO] I never tell secrets.

[thump of a book closing, rustling]

[WO] But, I see I've touched a nerve. I should be going.

[the feed distorts with static from paracausal radiation]

[WO] After you've cooled down, if your curiosity remains piqued, just whistle. I know where to find you.

[the static clears]

[a metallic clink]

[u.1] Sister, I ever whistle for you, it'll only be so I can look you in the eyes before I shoot you between them.


	4. Transcript of a Disavowed Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - contacts a member of the Praxic Order - defends her search for knowledge - advises on the merits of valuing perspective - admits to her curiosity...

TYPE: Transcription  
DESCRIPTION: Communication with person of interest  
PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Rhodes-6 [R6]; One [1] Ghost-type, designate Apollo [AP]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI#0247)  
ASSOCIATIONS: Darkness; Luna; Mahal, Aunor; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Sword Logic; Tango, Charlie; Toland; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//  
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS//

[R6:01] Do we have the reports from the latest Tex Mechanica tournament?

[AP:01] I've looked at them, doesn't seem like there's much to worry us there.

[R6:02] Perhaps, but some of the latest C.I. reports suggest there are some would-be Dredgens using Crucible to farm Light for their heresies.

[AP:02] Ah, right. "Traveling Sorrow's Road," they call it, right?

[R6:03] Gotta look over the reports to be sure. Send the files to my tablet?

[AP:03] On the way--

[incoming call notification]

[AP:04] --oh, incoming call.

[R6:04] [sighs] I thought you put us on "do not disturb," Apollo?

[AP:05] I did. It's bypassed the block.

[R6:05] [pause] Only people with the authority to do that are either other Praxics--

[AP:06] And they know you're catching up on reports and paperwork, so they wouldn't interrupt you unless it were an emergency...

[R6:06] --or it's the Vanguard, and if it were the Vanguard, you'd have said. Did they hack us?

[AP:07] I don't recognize the encryption on the transmission--

[pause]

[R6:07] Apollo? What is it?

[AP:08] I tried to back-trace the transmission, and I can't quite tell, but... I think it's coming from Ohr.

[pause]

[AP:09] I'll get a recording going.

[R6:08] Good. Put her through.

[transmission opens]

[R6:09] Wahei Ohr.

[WO:01] Rhodes-6.

[R6:10] It's been... what, three years since we last spoke?

[WO:02] Since the Red War.

[R6:11] I'd given up trying to get in touch with you. You weren't returning any of my calls.

[WO:03] We were all in a strange place over the last few years. Between Lightloss, Cayde, the Nightmares...

[R6:12] I had noticed you were way more involved in field work in recent years. Not doing as much research as you used to be.

[WO:04] I've been doing plenty of research. It just tends to be in the field. Studying the enemy, sort of thing.

[R6:13] I see. You know, we do have extensive records for that sort of thing.

[WO:05] Yes. But you wouldn't give me the records I wanted.

[pause]

[R6:14] Wahei--

[WO:06] And I know you're trying to trace this call. Any second now, your Ghost will pipe up and say that I'm in the Dreaming City--

[AP:10] Rhodes, she's in the Dreaming City!

[pause]

[R6:15] Thank you, Apollo. [beat] Wahei--

[WO:07] Save it, Rhodes. I know you're trying to track me because of the break-in at the Archives.

[R6:16] You-- [sighs] Yes, there are standing orders to bring you in for questioning.

[WO:08] "Questioning." Is that what you call it now?

[R6:17] We aren't in the habit of torturing people, Wahei.

[WO:09] Then what happened to Sola?

[R6:18] Sola... wouldn't come quietly.

[WO:10] Good.

[R6:19] Excuse me?

[WO:11] Oh, I don't mean "good" that she didn't come quietly.

[R6:20] You... approve of what we did to her?

[WO:12] Sola was too easily swayed. The only thing I'll offer in her defense is that the great enemy can be... very convincing.

[pause]

[R6:21] We're trying to rehabilitate her Ghost.

[WO:13] Good. But don't ignore everything that it has to say. Insight is never unwelcome.

[R6:22] "Insight." Is that what you're looking for in that damned book?

[WO:14] Do you know, I don't think that "damned" is a viable descriptor for a book. A book is just an object, it has no morals, so it cannot sin. And "sin" is a subjective thing, depending on one's beliefs. What was a sin to the followers of one god, is not a sin to the followers of another, and that's before you get into differing sects among a god's followers--

[R6:23] Wahei. You know ordinarily I'd enjoy having a philosophical discussion like this, but when we're talking about Toland's unfinished compendium, the description of "damned" is appropriately apt.

[WO:15] Again, that's debatable.

[R6:24] Wahei!

[WO:16] No. Listen. I'm not defending Toland's ultimate philosophy. There are flaws to that way of thinking. The Logic of the Sword is, on its surface, a viable approach to amassing power.

[R6:25] What?!

[WO:17] But only up to a point, and past that point, the costs of adhering to it become clear.

[R6:26] It's a slippery slope, Wahei. And it's not always easy to see where the line is when you start walking in Darkness.

[WO:18] Have you ever heard me disagree, Rhodes? I'm not advocating using Sword Logic as a means of growing in power. At best, it is a means of turning our enemies' power against them. And even then, only if augmented with the power of the Light.

[R6:27] Wahei, you can't trust what's written in that book.

[WO:19] Discounting Toland's discoveries about the nature of our enemy is a mistake. If it hadn't been for the things that he had divulged to Eris Morn-- or the things that she learned herself, down in the Hellmouth-- then Crota would have arisen to slaughter us all, and if not him, then certainly Oryx would have.

[R6:28] Toland was a madman. He was exiled for a reason, and you know that there are a lot of people in the City who believe that he got the rest of Eriana's fireteam killed.

[WO:20] I... can't say one way or the other whether that's true. Certainly, his writings-- even the proscribed ones-- don't give any indication what his intents were. Apart from wanting to hear the Deathsong.

[R6:29] Yes, and now we're getting reports that his spirit-- or whatever it's supposed to be-- is lurking in the Ascendant Realms and on Luna, trying to lecture Guardians about his beliefs. What worries us is that people do seem to be listening to him.

[WO:21] Good. As long as they keep in mind that his is only one perspective, there's nothing wrong with hearing him out.

[R6:30] He advocates embracing the Sword Logic. And that one of the Lightbearers who slayed him should assume Oryx's Throne.

[WO:22] As if the Hive would ever follow our will.

[R6:31] And yet you're saying that Toland has good ideas?

[WO:23] Not necessarily "good" ideas. But ideas that are still worth hearing out, and the things he's learned about the Darkness should never be disregarded.

[R6:32] The Darkness wants to wipe us out.

[WO:24] Spoken like a true Praxic.

[R6:33] Do I need to remind you about a little apocalypse called "The Collapse?!"

[WO] And out of the Collapse came the Ghosts, whence came Lightbearers. And it is the Lightbearers that are the only things keeping the Darkness from just rolling over us right now. Because we intrigue it.

[R6:34] And... what? You want us to keep amusing it until we can find a way to kill it?

[WO:25] You're talking about a paracausal entity from the primordial pretemporal metaspace whose power is, at best, several magnitudes above us. I think trying to kill something that is intrinsic to the universe is punching well above our weight class.

[R6:35] Then why even bother trying to understand it?! The way you're talking, you make it sound like it's impossible.

[WO:26] Maybe it is. But the alternative is letting it kill us all. So until a way to forestall that ending can be found, we must understand the enemy.

[R6:36] And you don't see how dangerous that is?

[WO:27] If you stand too close to the Light, it will blind you to things. I'm not advocating abandoning the Light or the Traveler or the City.

[R6:37] Wahei--

[WO:28] I'm just making this plain, Rhodes. I am not what Aunor thinks. I'm not a Dredgen. If we're going to survive, we must know more about the Darkness. What it wants and what it values. There must be a way to know it without succumbing to it. To surpass it without destroying it.

[R6:38] Wahei--

[WO:29] I don't know about you, Rhodes, but I am so terribly curious to know.

[transmission ends]

[pause]

[AP:11] Sorry, Rhodes, I tried to back-trace her, but it was bouncing around between satellites and relays. I didn't have enough time to untangle it.

[R6:39] Thank you, Apollo.

[AP:12] Should I raise Aunor on comms?

[R6:40] No.

[AP:13] What?

[R6:41] Keep the recording, but bury it. Encrypt it and stick it in the private server. If anyone asks, we don't mention this.

[AP:14] Rhodes!

[R6:42] I mean it, Apollo. Worse comes to worse, we can dig this up and present it to Mahal. But damn me, Wahei must just be right.

[pause]

[AP:15] I really hope she knows what she's doing.

[R6:43] You're not the only one.


	5. Transcript of a Twilight Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - meets a renegade - discusses lines and the stepping over of same - has a heated exchange - affirms her quest for insight...

TYPE: Transcription  
DESCRIPTION: Conversation between persons of interest  
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter [u.1]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247)  
ASSOCIATIONS: Darkness; Hive; Mahal, Aunor; Malphur, Shin; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Thorn; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon; WoS; Yor, Dredgen; Yor, Shadows of

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//  
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

[sounds of pages turning, scratching on paper]

[WO] I'm so close. I must be. I MUST be. [pause] I have to be.

[sound of waxen clattering]

[WO] [grunts] Not so encouraging.

[sound of footsteps approaching, creaking of leather]

[u.1] I thought I might find you out here.

[sound of scratching on paper]

[WO] How did you find me?

[u.1] Hunter. People seem to forget what that word means.

[WO] I took pains to keep my trail obscured.

[u.1] You did. But hunting people like you is what I do.

[WO] Then how come I am still alive?

[u.1] I don't shoot people in the back.

[WO] I see. And you still haven't answered my question.

[pause]

[u.1] You know why I'm here.

[WO] No. I don't.

[u.1] No?

[WO] We've all heard the stories. You stalk your prey. You confront them. There's a heated exchange. And then you walk away, and there is one less Light in the universe.

[u.1] Calling the people I've hunted "Lights" is stretching the definition.

[WO] Don't misunderstand me. I agree they needed to be stopped.

[u.1] DO you understand? You know what caused the people I've hunted to become my prey. You're walking down that same path.

[WO] Ah, well, there we must disagree. I am not walking the same path.

[u.1] Aren't you?

[WO] I am not crafting Weapons of Sorrow.

[u.1] You built that rifle with Eris Morn.

[WO] A necessary thing. The ravenous heart of a dead king, left unchecked, could have allowed the Hive to be reborn. Shackled now to the frame of a gun, it cannot feed if it is not wielded.

[u.1] And now that gun is missing.

[WO] Not all that is missing is lost.

[u.1] Then where is it?

[WO] Safe.

[u.1] Tell me where it is.

[WO] I never tell secrets.

[u.1] Keeping secrets makes it hard for people to trust you.

[WO] Indeed. And how many secrets do you have, Shin Malphur?

[pause]

[u.1] This is not about me.

[WO] Pardon my Ulurant, but that's a load of [EXPLETIVE DELETED].

[u.1] Excuse me?

[pause]

[WO] Will you permit me a moment of reflection?

[u.1] Making your peace, Warlock?

[WO] Oh, I'm not reflecting about myself. I'm reflecting about you.

[u.1] Me?

[WO] You. The Hunter of Shadows. The lone gunman who holds himself above all other Lightbearers. Do you know, the only reason the Praxic Order doesn't come after you is because the only Guardians you kill are ones that have gone to the Dark?

[u.1] I've dealt with their Order before. We know where we stand.

[WO] Do you? You're almost as bad as Aunor Mahal when it comes to hunting Dark-delvers.

[u.1] You know nothing of my calling.

[WO] Perhaps I am curious. Perhaps not. I think you've walked on the sword's edge a little too long. Darkness conceals more than we suspect. The Light can blind us just as much.

[u.1] That's dangerous thinking. I've seen where it leads.

[WO] Yes, yes, we've all heard the story of the "Showdown at Dwindler's Ridge." Anyone who bears the name of Dredgen walks the worlds while looking over their shoulder, worried that the Man with the Golden Gun is on their trail.

[u.1] Don't get so flippant, Warlock.

[WO] I'm just talking. You and I are more alike than you know. No, listen-- we both want to protect the people. Whether they're in the City or not. Am I wrong?

[u.1] [pause] You're not wrong.

[WO] Like the Praxics, you want to do it by protecting people from the Dark and those who would delve into it. Watching for signs of corruption and taking action where necessary.

[u.1] The Praxics tend to put too much trust in their ability to rehabilitate people. I've seen what a taste of the Dark's power can do to a person. If someone develops a cancer, sometimes you have to cut it out, rather than treat it and hope it doesn't metastasize.

[WO] I'm not disagreeing with you. But while you protect the people from threats from within, I'm trying to protect them from without. Fallen, Hive, Cabal, Vex... they're dangers, but they pale in comparison to what's coming. And if we're to protect everyone from that, we must know what we're facing.

[u.1] So let Eris Morn camp in that cradle on Io--

[WO] Eris is just one woman! One woman trying to fathom the understandings of an entity so far beyond our scope that we couldn't begin to comprehend how outclassed we are. All that, while also trying to unravel the machinations of an eons-old trickster queen who obfuscates nearly everything she touches.

[u.1] Then why aren't you there helping her?

[WO] If you're standing next to someone, then you just end up seeing the same things they do. In order to achieve proper insight, one must see it from a different point of perspective.

[u.1] And you're doing that by studying the words of a crazed Warlock like Toland? From a book that was justifiably banned and locked away?

[WO] [sighs] Again and again, the book is the problem with everyone. Honestly.

[u.1] Yes. Toland's studies of the Hive and the Darkness drove him mad.

[WO] If madness is the price of salvation, then it is a price I am willing to pay.

[u.1] You're walking too close to the line, Warlock.

[WO] If the Light is so bright as to be blinding us from the truth--

[u.1] You can't trust what you read in that book! Toland was insane!

[WO] --but the Darkness can distort and obscure the truth by its very nature--

[u.1] I've had enough of this-- 

[WO] --then I will seek any knowledge I can in the hopes of saving us all from what's to come.

[u.1] Draw your weapon. I won't shoot an unarmed woman-- 

[WO] I do not walk the hated path of sorrow. But my path runs parallel, along twilit roads.

[u.1] Draw your weapon!

[WO] And I will let nothing-- be they Vanguard or Praxic, Dredgen or Renegade, Light or Dark-- stop me.

[u.1] Goddammit--

[sound of leather creaking, hammer cocking]

[WO] You planning to shoot me in the back, Hunter?

[u.1] Turn around--

[a rush of static as the feed distorts from paracausal radiation]

[u.1] You--

[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun activating, firing once]

[u.1] Hold--

[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing once]

[u.1] --still--

[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing again]

[u.1] --damn--

[sound of static increases to a roar, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing again, hammer cocking]

[u.1] --witch!

[WO] Say what you mean.

[u.1] No one outdraws me.

[WO] Didn't. I just wasn't standing there when you did.

[sound of static fades back to a fizzle]

[u.1] Always wondered how I'd go out...

[WO] Don't be dramatic.

[sound of hammer uncocking]

[u.1] What are you doing?

[WO] I told you. I do not walk that path. I am not a Dredgen.

[pause]

[WO] You don't trust me.

[u.1] It's hard for me to trust anyone who broke into the Praxic Archives to steal that book.

[WO] Just as well it wasn't me that broke in.

[u.1] If a Dredgen kills another Guardian dead, I blame the Dredgen, not the Thorn that fired the bullet.

[WO] Fair enough. But again, I am not a Dredgen.

[sound of movement, thump of a book closing, rustling]

[pause]

[sound of a hammer cocking]

[u.1] I could just shoot you now. Call up the fire again, leave nothing but a smear on the rocks.

[WO] You'd shoot me in the back?

[u.1] No one will know the truth.

[WO] Ah. So is this where you will cross that line, then?

[silence]

[u.1] There won't be a place in the universe you can hide from me.

[WO] I know.

[u.1] If I see you've gone too far past that line, then I will bring every mote of Light to bear on you and send you into the hereafter.

[WO] If I've gone too far past the line, then I beg you to do so.

[silence]

[the feed distorts with static from paracausal radiation]

[WO] There are other delvers for you to find that are a more immediate threat than me. I would recommend looking on the Shore, in the jetsam of Saturn.

[u.1] [grunts] Don't think this absolves you, Warlock.

[WO] I am not seeking absolution, Hunter. I seek knowledge. Insight. Salvation.

[the feed clears]

[u.1] [grunts] There are some things even Voidwalkers aren't meant to know, Wahei Ohr.


	6. Transcript of a Praxic Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which members of the Praxic Order discuss - a break-in - a forbidden book - personality flaws - a certain person of interest...

TYPE: Transcription

DESCRIPTION: Excerpts from a Praxic Order meeting

PARTIES: One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Rhodes-6 [R6]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Aunor Mahal [AM]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Ferris Char [FC]

ASSOCIATIONS: Azzir, Rezyl; Black Fleet; Cull, Dredgen; Darkness; Kashaf, Afa [AKA Bog, Dredgen]; Luna; Mahal, Aunor; Morgan, Donovan; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Order; Samita, Sadijh; Tango, Charlie; Toland; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon; Yor, Dredgen

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//

//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

//ANNOTATION: MEETING NOTES//

[Meeting purpose was to discuss ongoing Praxic Order investigations.]

[Investigations discussed prior to detailed transcription include [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and the Shadows of Yor.]

//ANNOTATION ENDS//

[FC:0.1] Based on these reports, I think we should see an end to Guardians crafting Thorn clones soon.

[R6:0.1] Temporarily, at least. Many roads lead into sorrow. Every time we cut off one avenue to it, they find another.

[FC:0.2] We'll just have to deal with that when the time comes. At the very least, we'll see fewer Thorns being forged. It's down to us to hunt down the ones already in circulation.

[AM:0.1] Speaking of circulation, we need to address the recent break-in to the archives.

[R6:0.2] We do have people searching for the thief.

[AM:0.2] Charlie Tango is a mercenary. I'm more interested in the one who hired him.

[FC:0.3] Wahei Ohr.

[AM:0.3] Yes. You've all read my reports on her.

[FC:0.4] I've seen the un-edited ones. The Vanguard did have a point about potential bias, Aunor.

[AM:0.4] You know that--

[FC:0.5] I'm not saying that you're wrong that Wahei is courting some very dangerous knowledge.

[R6:0.3] She has always been overly fascinated with Toland's works. I know she's read every scrap of his writings that she could, including the Tome of Nothing.

[AM:0.5] I've always been concerned about her willingness to explore dangerous knowledge. And that was before the Red War.

[FC:0.6] Have we sent anyone to investigate whatever's left below Old Paris in the catacombs?

[AM:0.6] Most of the paths into them have been collapsed due to time or damage. And there are still a lot of Hive crawling around in there.

[R6:0.4] If Wahei's report is accurate--

[AM:0.7] Yes, "if."

[FC:0.7] Aunor, please.

[R6:0.5] --if it's accurate, and in spite of what Aunor thinks, we have no reason to suspect otherwise, then she took a Hive wizard called Tasarakh off the board. Apollo checked the name against the World's Grave, and Tasarakh was one of the Choir of Deathsingers. With her and her consort dead, any Hive in Paris likely have no major leaders.

[FC:0.8] If the reports we've gotten about what the Hidden Swarm were doing in the Necropolis are true, then it's likely the Hive may have turned on each other, trying to grow stronger.

[AM:0.8] The point I was trying to get to is that Paris marked a major turning point in Wahei's behavior.

[R6:0.6] Well, Lightloss hit everyone hard--

[AM:0.9] This is more than just Lightloss. Spending time in Hive territory away from the Light is dangerous. Eris Morn, for all that she's been of great assistance in combating the Hive and trying to understand the Black Fleet, has been unquestionably altered by her experience. All three of us know what happened to Azzir when he went to Luna. And then there's Toland--

[FC:0.9] Enough said.

[AM:1.0] So you agree that--

[FC:1.0] Enough, Aunor.

[pause]

[FC:1.1] You know there has been no proof that the book itself is dangerous.

[AM:1.1] No? Do I need to remind you about Afa?

[R6:0.7] Afa was one of Dredgen Cull's inner circle. That's a bad comparison.

[AM:1.2] Sadijh.

[FC:1.2] Sadijh was--

[pause]

[FC:1.3] --ill-prepared. We all were, to be fair. That book is not one that should be studied without knowing the dangers inherent in the knowledge within.

[pause]

[FC:1.4] Don't give me that look, Aunor.

[R6:0.8] He has a point. Smugness does not become you.

[AM:1.3] You understand my concerns, then.

[FC:1.5] It's a fair point. There's also the fact that Wahei is teammates with Morgan.

[R6:0.9] Now that's a bit unfair.

[FC:1.6] Morgan is known to participate heavily in Gambit. Much of his preferred arsenal points to that. I approached him and felt him out for informing us on the activities in the Annex, and... well, let's just say his response is not suitable for repetition.

[R6:1.0] Not surprising. Too many Guardians have had bad experiences with the Praxic Order. I can't imagine why.

[AM:1.4] What's that look for, Rhodes?

[R6:1.1] You aren't the most personable of people, Aunor. Guardians from the Old Russian and Red War cohorts don't react well to 'my way or the highway' approaches.

[AM:1.5] Can we stop talking about my own personality flaws for a moment? I'm aware that I have a black-and-white approach to morality and the line between Light and Dark, and that I'm abrasive sometimes. Maybe I am biased against Wahei, but it's not without reason.

[FC:1.7] It is a little concerning, I agree. The things she's been involved in, since the Red War, her behavior, her unwillingness to divulge what became of a Weapon of Sorrow in the wake of the War, and now the fact that she's got the Traitor's Die as well as that book-- Your concerns are valid, Aunor, even if you express them poorly.

[AM:1.6] Thank you.

[R6:1.2] Wahei contacted me.

[pause]

[FC:1.8] Why are we just now hearing about this?

[R6:1.3] There was little in our conversation worth reporting. Nothing we didn't already know. I did keep a record of our conversation, which I'll make available, and it's only now in retrospect that I realize how far she might have delved already.

[AM:1.7] Did you track--

[R6:1.4] I tried. But she was masking her transmission. There was something she said just before she cut transmission, and now I realize she was echoing something that Toland had said, in something he discussed with Eriana-3 before their mission. Toland was fascinated with the Deathsong and the Deathsingers, wanted to know how they were able to survive the Song, something like that. Wahei said... how did it go? Some way to know the Darkness without succumbing to it, to surpass it without destroying it. And she said, "I am so terribly curious to know."

[pause]

[AM:1.8] Char?

[FC:1.9] Yes, Aunor. You were right. We must make finding Wahei a priority and getting the book away from her.

[AM:1.9] It should have destroyed that book.

[FC:2.0] I am loath to destroy books, however profane their contents. But you may have a point where the Umbranomicon is concerned.

[AM:2.0] I'll talk to the Vanguard, try to convince them to call Wahei in.

[R6:1.5] No, I'LL talk to the Vanguard. No offense, Aunor, but Ikora already thinks you're unreasonably biased.

[FC:2.1] Rhodes, make your transcript available. I'll draft a warning and distribute it to the rest of the Order.

[AM:2.1] We must make sure that Wahei is aware of the dangers of understanding the Darkness. If she won't be swayed back to the Light, then she must face the Praxic Fire.

[R6:1.6] I don't think that will be necessary, and if nothing else, the insight she's trying to gain could be the key to our survival.

[AM:2.2] That remains to be seen.


	7. Transcript of an Emerald Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal - hijacks a transmat - gets cursed at, repeatedly - argues her viewpoint - gets shot for her troubles...

TYPE: Transcription

DESCRIPTION: Conversation with a person of interest

PARTIES: Three [3]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Donovan Morgan [DM] (POI #0268); One [1] Ghost-type, designate Eyeball [EB]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Aunor Mahal [AM] (AUN-326)

ASSOCIATIONS: Black Fleet; Crota; Darkness; Drifter; Emerald Coast (EDZ); Europa; Gambit; Hive; Kashaf, Afa [AKA Bog, Dredgen]; Mahal, Aunor; Morgan, Donovan; Morn, Eris; Ohr, Wahei; Rega-7; Sadihj, Samita; Tango, Charlie; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon; Yor, Shadows of

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//

//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

[sound of transmat arrival]

[DM:0.1] ...Hold up. This isn't the LZ for Emerald Coast. Eyeball, what's going on?

[EB:0.1] Something hijacked our transmat.

[AM:0.1] That was me. Keep your hands where I can see them, Morgan.

[DM:0.2] You. You got a lotta balls being this close to a Gambit match.

[AM:0.2] Keep your hands up!

[DM:0.3] Yeah, now I get my bearings, I know the combat area's just on the other side of that ruin over there. I can hear the shooting now.

[AM:0.3] I won't ask again, Morgan.

[DM:0.4] Okay, first? [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Mahal, if you were going to shoot me for disobedience, you'd have done it already. 

[AM:0.4] Morgan--

[DM:0.5] Second? [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Mahal, if this was a sanctioned Praxic op, you wouldn't be alone, and you'd have locked-up Eyeball the second he popped into view.

[EB:0.2] Good point.

[sound of Ghost decompilation from tangibility]

[AM:0.5] Dammit--

[DM:0.6] Third? [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Mahal, just on general principle. I'm going to the match.

[AM:0.6] We've issued a warrant for Wahei's arrest.

[pause]

[DM:0.7] Okay. [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Mahal.

[AM:0.7] We have good reason to--

[DM:0.8] This is because of that [EXPLETIVE DELETED] book, isn't it?

[AM:0.8] You know about it?

[DM:0.9] She's my teammate, Mahal. She told me what she was planning before Rega arranged a meeting with Tango.

[AM:0.9] And you didn't try to stop her?

[DM:1.0] Why the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] would I want to stop her? Much less even think I COULD? When Wahei Ohr wants to learn something, she doesn't stop until she finds an avenue to that knowledge.

[AM:1.0] That book is--

[DM:1.1] A book. The book itself is just paper and ink. The knowledge it holds? Yeah, maybe it's not exactly safe to know. But until Eris crawled out of the pit and showed everyone it was possible to kill the Hope-Eater, everyone assumed learning about the Hive wasn't safe.

[AM:1.1] Morn isn't the best examp--

[DM:1.2] There was a time when [EXPLETIVE DELETED] Osiris himself was exiled from the City because everyone assumed trying to understand the Vex was dangerous. And while the guy's arrogant and self-righteous a lot of the time-- like certain other Warlocks I could mention-- the fact remains that he's been right more than he's been wrong.

[AM:1.2] This is different.

[DM:1.3] There it is. Typical Praxic mindset. "Only we know when something is safe or not."

[AM:1.3] The Darkness is not something any Guardian should be studying!

[DM:1.4] How the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] do you expect to withstand something like the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] Pyramids without trying to study them for any kind of weakness?! Rasputin knew they were coming, he went full ham against them, and they straight up didn't notice and then switched him off like a [EXPLETIVE DELETED] light bulb!

[AM:1.4] We have to stay true to the Light--

[DM:1.5] Oh, for [EXPLETIVE DELETED] sake--

[AM:1.5] That's what the Traveler chose us for!

[DM:1.6] The Traveler chose us to save mankind, to protect them, didn't it? You think the Big White Ball cares if we take any means we can to do it?

[AM:1.6] Too many Dark Age Warlords thought the same way. We must be better than that.

[DM:1.7] Aren't we? We both make our home in the largest human settlement since the Collapse. The people are free to come and go as they please, they haven't really wanted for anything in spite of a Fallen siege that lasted more than a century, and while they got displaced during the Red War, the overwhelming majority survived and were able to come back. And, again, they are free to come and go as they please.

[AM:1.7] This isn't going anywhere-- Look, Morgan. Are you prepared to accept that Guardians can go bad? Not simply... dabbling in shadow, like doing Gambit or subjecting themselves to the mad amusements of a deranged emperor. I mean... Dredgen Yor bad.

[DM:1.8] Considering you just name-dropped the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] boogeyman, then yes, I am.

[AM:1.8] Imagine what might happen if that same kind of corruption could subvert a powerful Guardian, like... Osiris, or the Hero of the Red War, or...

[DM:1.9] ...or a Warlock who helped kill a dark god?

[AM:1.9] Exactly.

[DM:2.0] You don't think I know what Wahei's doing? You don't think I know what that book's done to other people who've read it? People like Afa Kashaf or Samita Sadijh?

[AM:2.0] How-- how do you know about them?

[DM:2.1] Shaman* told me about Sadijh. And Afa tried to recruit me to that pack of Yor-simps he ran with. I told him to [EXPLETIVE DELETED] off.

// * - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Shaman-9, teammate of both Donovan Morgan and Wahei Ohr. //

[AM:2.1] Why?

[DM:2.2] I got no problem wading into dark waters. Diving head-first and swimming into the deepest trench just because no one's stopping you is something else.

[pause]

[DM:2.3] Oh, sorry you're not buying it. 'Me am Titan, where crayon, me am only kill.' [EXPLETIVE DELETED] off.

[AM:2.2] That's not--

[DM:2.4] No, [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you. You looked as far as the armor and the arsenal and assumed I was full-bore in line with the Drifter's mindset.

[AM:2.3] You're not? You refused to cooperate with our investigation--

[DM:2.5] Because first, you're a Praxic, and you saw a Lightbearer who somehow commanded Taken and immediately assumed he was a bad guy. Second, because you didn't ASK me to cooperate, you practically DEMANDED it. Not that it matters, there were plenty of other Guardians who snitched.

[AM:2.4] The Drifter IS a bad influence. His philosophy is dangerous.

[DM:2.6] Only to hardline Praxic [EXPLETIVE DELETED] like you.

[AM:2.5] When it gets down to it, he will abandon you just to save his own hide.

[DM:2.7] Yes. And?

[pause]

[DM:2.8] Weren't expecting that answer? That's where Drifter and I are different. I might buy into some parts of his philosophy, wear the armor he provided, wield the guns he gave me, but at the end of the day, he's just a Lightbearer, while I am a Guardian.

[pause]

[AM:2.6] You could have saved me a lot of paperwork if you'd just told me that when I first approached you.

[DM:2.9] Yeah. Well. [EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Mahal. I don't like you.

[AM:2.7] You know what? I'm fine with that. I don't like you either, Morgan.

[DM:3.0] Long as we know where we stand.

[AM:2.8] [pause] About Wahei.

[DM:3.1] [sighs]

[AM:2.9] Please, even if you don't like me, just hear me out.

[DM:3.2] What?

[AM:3.0] You say you trust Wahei, and that's fine, I wouldn't expect you not to, after what you've been through with her. But look at this from my perspective. She is in possession of two dangerous artifacts. The Traitor's Die was crafted in Hive rituals by the Blood of Oryx. Preliminary studies suggested that, used in the right way, it can show visions to the user. We haven't been able to confirm if these visions are objective or not. And without evidence to support that belief, I MUST assume that the visions are slanted to support a Hive perspective.

[DM:3.3] Fair enough. But I still have to assume that my teammate is aware of that and interpreting any visions accordingly.

[AM:3.1] But the Umbranomicon is a different matter. I want to believe that she can read it and make use of its knowledge without going mad, but EVERY person who has read more than a handful of pages of that book has either gone Dark or gone insane.

[pause]

[DM:3.4] I have to trust my teammate, Mahal. You know that.

[AM:3.2] Morgan--

[DM:3.5] But I'll do this much for you. I'll tell you where she's gone.

[AM:3.3] [sighs] Well, it's better than nothing.

[DM:3.6] Sure. You follow her at your own risk.

[AM:3.4] That's the nature of my business.

[DM:3.7] She's heading for Europa.

[AM:3.5] ...[EXPLETIVE DELETED].

[DM:3.8] Yeah. Like I said, follow her at your own risk.

[pause]

[sound of gunshot]

[AM:3.6] [grunts]

[DM:3.9] Relax, you'll be fine. Give your Ghost a minute or two, you'll be right as rain.

[AM:3.7] Why?

[DM:4.0] Because this is how I keep Drifter's Crew from assuming I'm a snitch.

[AM:3.8] You--

[DM:4.1] Eyeball, can you transmat me over to the match now?

[EB:0.3] You got it, Morgan.

[DM:4.2] Ta ta, little piggy.

[sound of transmat departure]

[AM:3.9] ...[EXPLETIVE DELETED] you, Morgan.


	8. Account of an Umbral Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - notches another Hive royal on her belt - reassures her Ghost - gets into a staring contest with a skull - encounters phantoms and hears voices - receives an invitation...

The lot of a Ghost was a dangerous one, Vizier reflected. He had searched the system for an age and a half before coming across his Guardian in the Reef. It had been a long, lonely, treacherous search, avoiding the notice of Fallen and Hive and Vex alike, cunning and keen and relentless as they had all been. (The Cabal, by comparison, were easy to avoid.) The Reef had not been welcoming, had really never been welcoming, even after all that his Guardian had done for them. After finding his Guardian, Vizier had been drawn into forbidding places and thrust into deadly situations, but he would never abandon his Guardian.

But Vizier was now having doubts about whether his Guardian would abandon him.

He watched the battle from the safety of decompilation, out of phase with reality, invisible and intangible, but never very far from her as she Blinked about the court, slicing down Hive with a flash of a sword, dancing between purple explosions of flung grenades, guns blazing as she shot down leaping thrall and hissing witches. Wahei Ohr had changed since he'd found her, and the biggest change had come after the Red War, when they'd been lost down in those catacombs.

Vizier's memory of that time was clouded. He felt as though he'd been ... half-compiled, trapped between solidity and ephemera, hanging off of her belt in a little net of woven Awoken fiber. He'd felt like he was sleeping, dreaming, drifting, and what moments he could recall clearly, were nightmarish, filled with shrieking and howling of thrall.

He came back to the here and now as she bore the Exiled Prince to the ground, a sword buried in his chest. The necromancer snarled and reached up with burning claws, but Wahei pinned one down with a boot, catching the other with her hand, Void energies glowing as she drained away the vicious energies that he tried to turn on her. She removed her helmet, glaring through the thin dreadlocks that hung in her face. "Now who is the child reaching toward a flame?"

Nokris snarled again. _"You are but one in a chain of failures claimed and sunken."_ The Prince's eyes studied her as she leaned into the weight of her sword, and then his teeth showed in something like a smile. _"Does Xol's clutch hold you now, as it once did me?"_

"What use would I have for a faithless worm like the Thousands' Will?" Wahei shook her head. "No worm, no twisted thing from the Deep holds me." Her hand gave a twist, the sword turning in the wound, and Nokris growled in pain. 

_"An agent of violence,"_ he spat. _"What more must you cull?"  
_

"I can think of one thing." She felt the strength in his wrist fade, releasing his claw and letting it fall limp to the ground. "The universe will be a cleaner place without your stain in it." She met his glare with one of her own. "And there will be a little less hatred driving me."

He smiled again at her. _"Is **malice** not enough?"_

Vizier felt a coldness radiate from Wahei that had nothing to do with temperature. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down at him. "You speak of things you do not understand, o breaker of pacts."

_"I know many things,"_ he chuckled. _"Why else would the Seeker of Truths welcome me in Her court? She knows the truth none will accept."_

Her head tilted slowly, eyes gleaming with a pale light. "What truth is this?"

_"Light and Dark are locked blades."_ Nokris was wheezing now, vainly attempting to lift his arms. _"A logic simple and narrow. A bridge with only one path."_ He lifted his head and smiled one last time. _"Cast yourself from it. Break your shackles. Claim your strength."_ As he sank back, his body breaking to cinders and dust, he hissed, _"Life and death are liar's tools. Weave your own lie."_

Vizier compiled himself back into solidity over his Guardian's shoulder. She was staring at the place where the necromancer prince's body had lain, her sword still buried in the grave dirt of the Witch's court. He still felt the strange cold fury in her, but it slowly drained away as she holstered her hand cannon. She lifted her gaze and took in the surroundings of the court.

Vizier broke the silence, unable to bear it. "Looks very familiar, doesn't it?"

The Warlock nodded. "Constants and variables. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same,'" she mused. "For all that the Witch Queen sought to grow different from her brother, it seems she has much the same aesthetic likes as him." She pulled her sword from the floor and returned it to its scabbard as she strode across the dirt toward the raised dais and the now-silent portal. Vizier saw her hand drop to the pack on her hip, lifting the flap to reach inside.

"You know that everyone does have a point about that book," Vizier noted, reproachfully. She ignored him as she drew out the black leather-bound book, fingers briefly touching the geometric pattern of triangular shapes scored on its cover. He pressed on, "You know I'll follow you into the Deep Down Deep Dark, but that doesn't mean I don't worry about you."

"I'm fine, Vizier," she said as she crouched, consulting a marked page in the book. She then busied herself using the non-writing end of her stylus to scrawl some signs and sigils in the dirt in front of the portal. "I know you, the team, the Vanguard, and especially the Praxics would like me to see a psychiatrist or therapist, but I do not care to dwell on my experiences in Paris." She paused, lifting her gaze, her deep blue eyes staring into nothing. "I have enough nightmares as it is without having to drag those memories back to the surface."

Vizier made a sighing sound. "I know you're not going to go the route of the Dredgens, but that's no guarantee that you won't go all bibbledy. Remember Cyrell? Not every Guardian who goes bad wields a Thorn." He flitted close and bumped his shell against the shaven side of her head. "I'm with you to the end, Wahei. Just... don't lose sight of the Light, no matter how Dark things get."

She smiled faintly as she flicked her finger off one of his shell's fins. "Thanks, Viz."

* * *

Wahei was a Guardian known for her singular focus when in the midst of studying or researching. It had been a point of contention among her fellow Warlocks in her early years, as she drifted from topic to topic, from order to order, learning a little something from each. The Cryptarchs had liked her, though perceived her decision not to remain among them as a loss. For them as well as for her. The Thanatonauts had welcomed her, but simply shrugged when she moved on. The Praxic Order, of course, had been leery of the fact that she did not stay, and she suspected that had prompted an age-old grudge among some of the Order.

But Wahei was never someone who cared much for the opinions of others about herself. She knew herself, knew where the line was with her, and she took care not to step over it. Not unless there had been no choice.

Like under Paris.

Wahei shook the ruminations away and returned her focus to the task at hand. She laid Toland's last compendium down next to her, then drew another object from her pack. It resembled a bird skull, but closer inspection revealed it to be comprised of some waxy substance. Its surface was covered with scrimshaw-like etchings, but several sides of the skull bore more deeply carved runes. Wahei let the Traitor's Die dance between her fingertips a few times, then flicked her thumb under the beak, sending it tumbling into the air, coming down into the circle in front of her.

The Die landed on its side, one rune facing up, which began to glow with an orange light. Wahei sat back on her knees as she regarded it. Then the Die suddenly turned of its own accord, rolling in place several times, before the other side faced up, the rune there beginning to glow as well. It tumbled again in place, until it stood up on the point of the beak, the underside facing her, its rune glowing. It slowly rotated to face her, the two runes in its eye sockets lighting up.

Vizier eyed it warily. "...it's looking at me, Wahei."

"You're imagining things, Viz." She reached into her pack for her journal. "It's just an object."

The Traitor's Die tumbled about in place again and swiveled slowly until its eyes faced her. Vizier muttered, "I think it can hear you, Wahei."

Wahei opened her mouth to speak, turning to look at her Ghost, but he wasn't there. She turned back, but the runed circle she'd scrawled was gone. The Die was still there, hovering in place. Everything else around her was dark columns extending into the distance, with a faint gleam in the distance, emanating from a tetrahedral shape that hung in the air.

A voice spoke, then. One that she had heard in Dark places, on the shores of the Sea of Screams. _"Don't you see?"_ She spun, looking for the floating wisp of Light, but there was no sign of it. _"This is as we once said."_ It seemed to be coming from the Traitor's Die.

"Toland?" She groped for her journal, but her pack was empty. She looked down, and saw that the compendium and her stylus were missing as well.

When she looked back up, the Die had gone, but there stood a towering shape in the armor of a Titan. Wahei stared at the figure of Sergei Bolvan, a smile on his face, but his eyes shone with the same orange glow the Die's runes had. _"In Light,"_ he said, _"there is only weakness. Only failure. Only death."_

"Bolvan, you lunkhead, what are you doing here?" she whispered, but as she rose to her feet, he had disappeared. She saw him standing farther away, closer to the hovering Pyramid. She walked toward him. "You can't be here, Bolvan. You're dead. RTL."

She lost line of sight as a column passed between them, and then he was gone. But she saw another familiar shape, looking toward the Pyramid, then turning to regard her with an all-too-familiar cold detachment. But the eyes in the figure of Mara Sov shone with the same orange glow. Wahei froze, staring at the not-Queen, who picked up the thread. _"But where the Light takes, the Dark gives. No longer will you be a pawn."_

"You're not her!" she shouted at the figure, her sword coming free from its scabbard. The blade flashed, but the not-Queen was no longer there. She whirled, but froze as she saw that another shape had appeared closer to the Pyramid.

_"No longer will you watch the lives of those you care for be lost,"_ the figure of Cayde-6 drawled, his orange-glowing eyes watching her as he tugged his hood into place above his horn.

Wahei shook her head. "You're-- no... He's gone, too. You're not him. This isn't funny!"

But not-Cayde was gone again, and she saw a different figure standing beneath the Pyramid, her arms spread wide, as if in welcome. She slowly approached the shape, who turned her own head down to regard her in kind. While the other figures had the strange orange glow in their eyes, this one had a pale, cold glow instead.

_"Remember,"_ the mirror of herself said, _"in Darkness, there is only strength. Only victory. Only life."_

She glared at her doppelganger. "You twist the meaning of words to suit your purposes. You speak of these things, but you only want--"

_"Strength_ ," the doppelganger repeated. _"Those who do not hold their claim to existence do not deserve it. To stake one's claim, one must be strong."_ The not-her inclined her head, smiling thinly. _"Victory. Those who assert their right to existence, continue to exist. This is the only true victory."_ She brought her hands together, steepling her fingers. _"Life. It only holds meaning when one proves one's right to existence."_

Wahei's hand went to her hip, but she found her holster empty. _"We told you,"_ the not-Wahei's lips twitched in a smile, _"you will not need weapons. We are not your enemy."_

"You are not our friend, either," she pointed out. "The things you're saying? These are just your opinions, your beliefs. Mine are different."

The not-Wahei nodded with another smile. _"Does your Traveler tell you what they believe? Have they given you any guideposts by which to shape your beliefs?"_

Wahei frowned. "No," she admitted. "But I do not need to hear from the Traveler to know what I'm doing is right. Protecting my people."

There was the faintest hint of a sneer on the doppelganger's lips. _"If your people cannot stand without your help, they do not deserve--"_

"Finish that sentence," her voice was flat, but rimed with fury, "and I will find a way to make iota of your being to die screaming." Wahei's eyes gleamed with a coldness that matched the one in her mirror's own as she added, "I may just do that anyway."

The not-Wahei smiled now, wider, and her eyes shone brightly. _"Ah. Such righteousness. You are majestic."_ She seemed to draw in a breath, savoring it before sighing, _"Majestic."_

Wahei found her gaze locked with her doppelganger's then, as her Dark twin raised a finger, curling it as if beckoning. _"Come and See."_ And when the mirror spoke next, it was in a voice like multitudes, whispering, _"Ancient power awaits you on Europa."_

She could not speak, could not move, but with a wave of the other's hand, Wahei found herself flung backward. The world turned inside out around her, before she found herself landing on the soil in the Cradle, looking up at the Darkened shape of the Tree of Silver Wings.

Vizier blinked his optic a few times as he looked around. "Wahei? What ... what just happened? I... lost sight of you, I think...?"

Wahei sat up slowly, feeling the weight of the Umbranomicon in her pack again, and she looked to her Ghost. "We'll talk later." She looked up at the huge bulk of the Pyramid which blotted out the sky. "But I think I know where our next destination will be."


	9. Transcript of a Splintered Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - confronts a House Salvation hitman - acquires a Splinter - discusses the nature of the Light and Dark - leaves a man for dead...

TYPE: Transcription

DESCRIPTION: Conversation between a person of interest and a high-value target

PARTIES: Three [3]: One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247); One [1] Fallen-type, designate Loveks [LOV] (VIP #5353); One [1] Ghost-type, designate Vizier [VIZ]

ASSOCIATIONS: Black Fleet; Darkness; Eramis; Europa; Fallen; Light; Loveks; Ohr, Wahei; Salvation, House of [aka Darkness, House of; aka Dark Empire]; Splinter; Traitor's Die; Translation Needed; Traveler; Umbranomicon

// [Millie: Is there a reason we don't have a translation on the Fallen-speak? -FER-026]

[I tried my best, sir. It's not always easy to parse Riisan. Between the guttural way they speak it and the way their language compounds words, I've done the best I can. But as it is, I believe most of the untranslated stuff here is either shibboleth, jargon, or esoteric vocabulary that isn't in our regular dictionary. -MIL-921]

[I'll see about contacting Misraaks' fireteam to see if they can help. -FER-026]

[However you choose to get it done, update this transcript as soon as convenient. -AUN-326]

[If inconvenient, update all the same. -AUN-326] //

* * *

// [TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: Where applicable, known translations of Riisan are presented {like this}. -MIL-921] //

[Exchange of gunfire; sounds of physical exertion and aggression]

[LOV:01] Run, Lightborn. [laughs] It makes the hunt more interesting.

[WO:01] I agree.

[a rush of static as the feed distorts from paracausal radiation]

[WO:02] So, by all means, start running.

[LOV:02] [UNTRANSLATED]

[sound of static persists, gunfire, sudden movement, distortion increases]

[LOV:03] Ha! {Void-step witch.}

[WO:03] "Void-step witch?" Huh. That's a new one.

[LOV:04] I know how to deal with {Void-step witches}.

[sound of static increases, crystalline noise, static ends]

[WO:04] [grunt of exertion, straining noises]

[LOV:05] [laughs] Disappointed. I expected more from [UNTRANSLATED].

[WO:05] [strained] You know who I am.

[LOV:06] Yes. Wahei Ohr. [UNTRANSLATED]. {Traitor.}

[WO:06] [strained] I am not a traitor!

[LOV:07] Those who are, never think they are. Like {oathbreaker} Variks.

[WO:07] [strained] And what makes you think I'm a traitor?

[LOV:08] You are hunted. By [UNTRANSLATED]. {Zealot/fires.}

[WO:08] Mahal and her ilk have never liked my methods.

[LOV:09] [laughs] I see now my Kell was right. You are [UNTRANSLATED]. A Dark-seeker. You seek to wield it as we do.

[silence]

[WO:09] So it IS true. Your new House HAS tapped into the Darkness.

[LOV:10] [UNTRANSLATED]! We have harnessed it! A fount of power unrivaled! Even the Great Machine pales before it!

[WO:10] "Harnessed it?" Do you understand what it is you're dealing with?

[LOV:11] Better than you and your {zealot/fires}.

[WO:11] Really? [grunt of exertion] I doubt that.

[LOV:12] This power will be the salvation of our people. Especially from Lights like you.

[WO:12] There are no Lights like me.

[a rush of static as the feed distorts from paracausal radiation]

[LOV:13] [UNTRANSLATED]!

[sound of static persists, crystalline shattering, distortion increases]

[LOV:14] [laughter] A worthy hunt!

[sound of static persists, several sounds of sudden movement, crystalline noises]

[LOV:15] Clever Machine-spawn. Flash around all you want.

[sound of static persists, several sounds of sudden movement]

[LOV:16] But I know how to deal with {Void-step witches}.

[sound of static persists, sudden movement, crystalline noises, sound of metal piercing flesh]

[WO:13] [scream of pain]

[sound of static cuts off, sudden movement, sound of body hitting ground]

[LOV:17] Not so easy to flash around with a hook through you. [laughs]

[WO:14] Not as easy to get the drop on the Light-Hunter without a decoy.

[shattering sound, sudden movement, sound of metal piercing flesh]

[LOV:18] [roar of pain] [UNTRANSLATED].

[WO:16] Hush, now.

[LOV:19] [strained] Damned decoys.

[WO:17] Picked it up from Spider after the mess on the Tangled Shore two years ago. Cost a mint.

[LOV:20] [strained] [UNTRANSLATED] {witch!}

[a rush of static as the feed distorted from paracausal radiation, crystalline noises]

[WO:18] No. None of that.

[crack of gunshot, skittering as of object over ground]

[LOV:21] [shout of pain]

[WO:19] So this is a Splinter.

[rustling of leather, sound of page turning, scratching on paper]

[WO:20] Let's see...

[sound of waxen clattering]

[WO:21] Um.

[VIZ:01] Is it supposed to do that?

[WO:22] "Supposed to," or not, it's doing it.

[VIZ:02] I don't like it.

[WO:23] I understand, Vizier. Truth be told, I don't like doing it, either. But if we're going to find a way through, we have to. If only to stop Eramis and her House.

[LOV:22] [growling] [UNTRANSLATED]. We only wanted safety for our people!

[WO:24] And if you'd stayed put here on Europa, you might have had it. But your Kell decided she wanted to declare war on us.

[LOV:23] [UNTRANSLATED]. You cling to your false god, Machine-spawn. It will abandon you. Like it did us.

[WO:25] Hmm. Viz, please go up to the ship. I'll be along shortly.

[VIZ:03] Wahei--

[WO:26] NOW, Vizier. I won't ask again.

[pause]

[sound of transmat departure]

[pause]

[sound of pages turning, scratching on paper]

[WO:27] I'm going to tell you something, Loveks.

[LOV:24] [UNTRANSLATED]--

[sudden rush of static from paracausal radiation]

[WO:28] You will be SILENT.

[LOV:25] [quiet noise]

[pause; static fades]

[WO:29] I have become aware of many things in recent months, since the Black Fleet's arrival. The nature of the eternal conflict in the universe. The nature of the powers we possess. And even an inkling of the nature of the forces behind those powers.

[pause]

[WO:30] You call the "Great Machine" a "false god." And you're right. But you're also wrong. It is fallible. It is, in some ways, cowardly. It grants power, but then offers no real guidance to those who wield its power. But it was there when the universe was born, it helped shape it, as flawed as it might be. And it is the source of an impossible power, one that can alter reality itself, which allows its users to make their own fate. In that respect, it is indeed a god. Flawed, but undeniable.

[pause]

[WO:31] The same holds true for the Pyramid. It claims to speak truths, but only from its own perspective. It manipulates everything, from matter to energy to words to pure potential. It offers salvation, but only on its exacting terms. Failure is oblivion. But, like the Traveler, it was there at the beginning, it shapes the universe as well. It is also the source of an impossible, reality-altering power. And, in its own words, it doesn't know if its way is any more correct than its opposite number.

[pause]

[WO:32] Diametrically opposed forces. And therein lies the problem with your House and the power it uses.

[LOV:26] [strained] "Problem?"

[WO:33] You wield Dark power. Power that was bestowed upon you by your Kell.

[LOV:27] Yes.

[WO:34] This is why your empire will fall.

[thump of a book closing, rustling of leather]

[WO:35] We Lightbearers were given our power. That is part of its very nature, meant to foment cooperation and interconnectedness.

[LOV:28] What is your point, {witch}?!

[WO:36] But Darkness? It wants to cull the weak and unworthy, for anything that cannot stand on its own doesn't deserve to exist.

[LOV:29] What--

[WO:37] Accordingly, Dark power cannot be given.

[a rush of static from paracausal radiation]

[WO:38] It must be taken.

[static persists; pause]

[static fades]

[sound of comm-channel opening]

[VIZ:04] [comm] Ship's ready, Wahei.

[WO:39] Let's go, Viz. I must study this Splinter.

[VIZ:05] [comm] What about Loveks?

[WO:40] What about him?

[sound of transmat departure]

[LOV:30] [weak] Ha. {I respect that which I cannot kill,} Wahei Ohr.

// [ADDENDUM]

[cf. REP-AAR-EUR-IR-2020]

[Sent a team to investigate the location where this took place, since Ohr has again not filed a report about this. No sign of Loveks' body, though traces of Fallen ether and blood were on the ground. Area showed signs of the conflict as well. Until evidence is found that he is dead, assume Loveks is still alive but incapacitated. Additionally, there is no sign of his Splinter, and we must assume that it's in Ohr's posssession. -AUN-326] //


	10. Account of a Rising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Prelude, In which Wahei - Is Risen for the first time - learns that trouble follows - has an audience with the Queen - travels to the Last City - meets the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal for the first time.

Blackness. Nothingness. Emptiness.

That had been all the Awoken could remember before this moment, here and now. She felt like there was more before it, but it was as though there was a crystalline wall in her mind, behind which her past lay. As she probed at it, thoughtfully, she realized that she could perceive beyond that boundary, but what lay beyond it was more emptiness. There were glints of fragments of what might have been memories in that crystalline wall, but they were ephemeral and slipped through her grasping mind's fingers.

She wasn't sure how long she'd laid there after taking her first breath. But she finally sat up and acknowledged the flitting drone that zipped around her. The rounded spikes of the drone's shell were a matte gray, speckled with faintly iridescent white dots, so that it almost blended in with the starry skies above it. "--rdian?" it was saying, looking at her worriedly. It spoke in a light masculine tone, a steady tenor.

"Are you speaking to me?" she asked it, but even before it answered in the affirmative, she was already looking at herself. She wore some close-fitting leather-like armor which seemed to cover everything below her neck, with lightweight pauldrons on her shoulders. A skirt with a purple-and-gold standard on one hip wrapped around her waist over her armor's trousers, and a pair of belts festooned with pouches for ammunition and other small tools accompanied this. An armored gorget covered her throat and neck, and nearby she saw a helmet which presumably could attach to this. Without donning it, she estimated that it would have covered almost her entire head, leaving a strip exposed from the bridge of the nose to the upper lip. The front of the helmet sported an emblem marked out in gold.

All of it had a touch of familiarity to it, but only in those shimmering wisps of memory in the boundary wall of her mind. There was a holster on one of her belts, and nearby there was a sidearm which she instinctively knew fitted the holster. Retrieving it, she realized that it was somewhat mangled, and probably wouldn't fire. She slipped it into the holster anyway.

The little drone had gone quiet, looking at her with an almost quizzical expression on its... well, it didn't really have a _face_ , per say, just a single optic, so one couldn't really say it even had an _expression_ , so it was puzzling how she could even interpret any kind of emotion it might be displaying. But now as she looked closer, she realized that it could shift the rounded spikes of its shell about its optic, not unlike eyebrows or a mouth, so in a sense it still had a kind of micro-expression that the keen could read and interpret...

It was at that point she realized that she had been vocalizing all of these thoughts as she had them. She trailed off, looking back at the drone, which had called itself her 'Ghost.' The Ghost watched her for a moment, then said, with a patient tone, "You obviously have a lot of questions. I promise we'll try to find answers for all of them. But we should probably get moving. It's not safe to stay in one place around here."

"Why not?" she asked, though the presence of the mangled gun in her holster spoke to the truth in what the Ghost was saying.

"We're in the Reef," came the answer. "This is Awoken territory, and they don't much like Ghosts poking around here, much less any Guardians that come around." It-- _he_ , she corrected herself, _he has a voice and can think, it's not fair to call him an 'it'_ \-- swiveled to look at her. "You're Awoken, but you're a Guardian, so they won't be friendly."

"Why not?" she asked. "'Guardian' implies that I'm a protector. If I'm a protector, why can't I offer them my services? I could be _their_ Guardian, couldn't I?" There was a beat as something occurred to her. "I can't remember anything, and I think you know that, but ... being a protector _feels_ right. Like I did that kind of thing ... _before_. And I'm wearing what feels like a uniform and it comes with a weapon, so I probably _was_ a protector of some kind. Was I a bodyguard? Security services?"

The Ghost made a sound like a sigh. "You are _such_ a Warlock." He turned back to her again. "As I said, we'll have time to answer questions later. I've heard stories that the Awoken just make any newly-Risen Guardians they find disappear."

She cocked her head. "Then where do the stories come from?"

The Ghost blinked his optic, before sighing again. " _Such_ a Warlock." Then, quickly: "Please don't ask what I mean. We need to get moving."

She shrugged and started picking her way through the wreckage around her. She'd dimly recognized it was there when she was waking up, but had been distracted by trying to penetrate the boundary in her mind. The stony ground was littered with scrap and wrecked ship parts. Judging by the size of the larger pieces, it had been a single-seater, a personal ship, as opposed to a larger transport of some kind. There were several other wrecks visible as she climbed over a small hill, all with similar purple-and-gold livery to the standard that adorned the skirt she wore, but there were several bulks which looked different to the rest, but in no better repair. The standards on these other ships were of various colors, themselves sporting emblems of some kind as well, seeming of a different design to that of the purple one. Their design looked... alien, in some way she couldn't quite define, like she instinctively remembered-- _if that's the right word_ , she thought-- they weren't made by human hands.

"I think there's a ship we can patch up over this way," the Ghost said. "Get it flying, get out of Reef space--"

He cut off as a bolt of energy spiraled past him. Yelping, he vanished from sight, and she whirled in the direction the shot had come from, seeing several figures approaching. By the looks of them, they'd been scavenging things from one of the wrecked alien ships, all sporting strips of cloth wound around either their torsos or one of their arms which had the same color as the ship's livery. One stood atop a hunk of debris, clutching some strange rifle in two of its-- _yes, it has four arms._ It lined up on her, firing a salvo at her, but she abruptly found herself standing several feet from where she'd been standing.

The three smaller aliens-- which only had two arms, she noted-- were rushing toward her, brandishing pistols and knives. One tried shooting, but it went so wide that she didn't have to move. She leaned out of the way of a slash from the first to reach her, her hand coming up and using its momentum to send it somersaulting onto the ground. The next thrust its knife toward her face, but she leaned away from it, grabbing its arm and _twisting_ , hearing the snap of bones as it shrieked in agony. She shoved it toward the third, knocking them both down in a tangle of limbs as she leapt away to avoid the next salvo from the rifleman.

_"I'm sorry,"_ the voice of the Ghost said in her head. _"I didn't spot this salvage crew in the area when I came in to find you, or I wouldn't have brought us this way."_

"Save the apologies for after we get out of here alive." Her mind whirled about how she was hearing him inside her head, but as a shot from the rifle perforated the metal plate which served as her cover, she pushed the whirling thoughts aside. "What am I dealing with, here?"

_"The Fallen,"_ the Ghost told her. _"A race of pirates and scavengers. They don't like Guardians much. Looks like this is just a small crew."  
_

She nodded, and then a pair of the two-arms came around her cover, aiming their pistols. She let out a shout as a shot from one caught her in the stomach, but she lunged out, grabbing it by the arm thrusting the pistol forward, pivoting around and using it as a shield as its comrade fired. The meat-shield slumped as the shot caught it in the heart, and its knife dropped from its fingers. She stooped, grabbing it and lunging forward again, burying the knife in the other's neck. To her astonishment, steaming wisps of vapor boiled out of the wound in addition to some alien blood.

She was so distracted with the pair of them that she didn't see the rifleman flank her until it roared at her, shifting its grip on its weapon. One of its lower arms took the stock as its upper partner swung a fist at her. She went sprawling against the metal plate, head spinning, as it planted a foot on her chest and pinned her down so it could aim its rifle. Her hand came up with the mangled pistol, thrusting it against the Fallen's belly and squeezing the trigger.

The weapon exploded. The Fallen was sent staggering back, blood and vapor seeping from the injury, bellowing in agony. She could hardly hear it over her own screams as she clutched at her wrist below her now missing hand. The Fallen propped itself up against a piece of debris, raising the rifle again as it rattled off something in its language-- right before its head burst, releasing a howling gush of vapor. The body seized up, limbs curling inward, before it dropped.

She managed to stop screaming as she stared at it, and then looked up as several humans appeared with weapons of their own. _No,_ she realized, _not humans._ They were wearing the same armor she was, and between the gorgets and their helmets' visors she could see their skin was in varying hues of blue or purple.

"We heard the gunfire," one of them was saying. "What were you doing out here?" The speaker was a male, and some insignia on one pauldron suggested some kind of officer rank. He turned to his comrades. "Do a quick sweep, make sure there aren't any others." Two of his fellows went to do so, while he approached her carefully. "What were you doing out here?" he repeated. "I didn't think we had anyone else out here--"

"Sir," one of the others said, a note of urgency to their voice. "Look at her banner." He looked downward, and she followed his gaze to her skirt, and the emblem thereupon. Now she compared hers to theirs, there were subtle glyphs and symbols surrounding the insignia. He looked up at her sharply, and then he had a gun in his hand. He wasn't aiming it at her yet, but the way he moved suggested he wouldn't be slow in doing so if she made the wrong move.

"Tell your Ghost to show itself, Lightbearer," he said, the note of friendliness to his voice now gone.

"I don't know what a Lightbearer is," she said, keeping her hands elevated and visibly empty. "I was ... asleep, I think? Or, no, not asleep exactly, but I don't remember anything beyond a few minutes ago. And then I was awake, and my... Ghost, yes, that's what he called himself, my Ghost was trying to get me to hurry up and get out of here, because he was afraid of running into you. I don't know what the problem is, my Ghost told me I'm a... Guardian, I believe? And that suggests I'm here to protect people, not cause trouble--"

"Trouble follows," the officer interrupted her. "You're a Lightbearer. Last time I'm asking politely." His free hand flashed out and grabbed the broken, bloody stump where her hand had been, causing her to scream again. "Make your Ghost show itself."

"You call this asking politely?" she hissed in pain.

"Yes," came the curt reply. "You don't want to see me get impolite."

Fortunately, she didn't have to ask, because then her Ghost rematerialized, frantically spinning the facets of his shell. "I'm here! I'm here! Stop hurting her!"

To her surprise, the officer immediately released her, looking at the floating drone. "Could have saved her the pain." He rose, gesturing with his gun. "Help her out. Heal her up. And if you try anything, we'll shoot her, then you." He reached up with his free hand, heedless of the blood on it, and thumb something on his gorget, toggling a comm-link. "Team, we've got a fresh Lightbearer here, we need to move. Finish your sweep."

As he was relaying orders, the Ghost nervously floated down to look at her stump. "Sorry," he mumbled. "We Ghosts always hide when the bullets start flying." He paused. "Give me a minute, I'll have that fixed for you..." His shell opened slightly, and a soft light shone between the open facets. She felt the pain receding, and there was a brighter flash of light, then, to her astonishment, her hand was restored, whole and undamaged.

She felt at it, then looked at the Ghost, who explained, "This is one of many things the Ghosts do for their Guardians. We can heal you, even bring you back from the dead in most circumstances." He looked up at her. "We're your guides, too. To help you stay true to the Light."

She wanted to ask him so much more, but the Awoken officer looked down at her. "All healed up? Good. I've just got word from the _Black Hull_." He stood back and regarded her with a curious expression. "Look presentable. You've got an audience with the Queen."

* * *

The Ghost took some time during the trip to explain a few things about Guardians, the Traveler, the Light, and several other things. He had to stop her asking questions, explaining again that he only had so much time before they arrived. The officer's galliot was a two-seater, and he had her sit in the front seat, where he could keep an eye on her. The officer, who gave his name as Captain Hollis Eso, had nothing to add during the trip, except to explain that "You are a dead thing risen from your grave. Trouble follows, where Guardians go."

She'd been allowed some time after disembarking to freshen up in a well-appointed bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror, the light purple skin which shimmered strangely, especially in shadow, the luminescent deep blue eyes. Her head was shaved smooth on the right half of her head, and her long silver hair had been wound into thin dreadlocks. There were two pale streaks tattooed onto her face, sweeping up over her eyes and then branching into a series of curls across her brow. The face was hers, there was no doubt about that, but anything else about herself was gone, leaving only faint traces of memory beyond the crystalline veil.

When she was finished, Captain Eso brought her to a large door. He turned to her. "You go in, alone. Your Ghost stays here."

She looked at her Ghost, then back to Eso. "If you hurt him--"

"Yeah, yeah," he waved this off. "Not gonna kill it yet." He made a shooing gesture. "In you go."

She glowered at him, then turned to go through the door. At the far end of the room beyond, a throne was erected, with a commanding view of space beyond it. Someone else was before the throne, his back to her as he spoke in low tones. As she approached, she could hear him say, "--seems solid. Should I have the fleet moved to Cybele--?"

The Queen raised a hand to stop him, her gaze languidly shifting to regard her. "We have a visitor, brother."

The other Awoken turned, regarding her with disdainful yellow eyes and just barely hiding a sneer on his handsome features. "Why did you bring it in here, sister?" He glanced back to the Queen. "Not all of them are going to be as conciliatory as Orin was."

"Excuse me," the Lightbearer interrupted, her voice cold. "I'm not an _it_. And I'll thank you to remember that."

The man narrowed his eyes, one hand dropping to a knife at his waist. The Queen, however, lifted her hand again, and he looked to her. There passed a moment as they simply looked at one another, before he bowed his head and stepped back and to one side, though his eyes never lost the dislike as he looked at the Lightbearer. The Queen sat forward a bit, resting her chin across the back of her knuckles. "No, indeed, you're not an _it_. Look, brother, she is one of _ours_." The prince glanced at his sister, then looked at the Lightbearer, his eyes falling to the insignia on her skirt, then back up to her face. She saw recognition flicker in his eyes.

" _Yes_ , brother." The Queen hadn't looked away from her, but evidently could register her brother's reaction. "This was one of our Queensguard." There was a pause, before the Queen continued, in a flatter, less amused tone, probing, questioning. "Do you remember anything?"

"Of course she doesn't, sister," the prince began, but the Lightbearer surprised herself when she cut him off.

"She was talking to me. Speak for me again, and it'll be the last time you speak." She broke the stare with the Queen to fix him with a glare, which she received in turn. He drew his knife, but now the Queen made a flick of a finger in his direction. He stopped, glancing at her, then shoved his knife back in its sheath as he stalked out of the room.

"Do accept that my brother speaks for himself, and no one else," the Queen stated. It wasn't an apology, the Lightbearer realized. "I would like an answer to my question. Do you remember anything?"

She shook her head. "There's..." She gestured vaguely at the side of her head. "Images? Sounds? Like... impressions left in a notepad under a pencil." She paused, looking away. "It's strange. Why do I remember things like pencils and notepads, but not bigger things like ... who I was. Is this because I was dead? But then how did I get brought back? My Ghost said something about the Traveler and the Light, but he didn't have time to explain--"

The Queen disrupted the rambling train of chatter with a dry observation. "There's never enough time to explain. And this seems _de rigueur_ for the Traveler's idiot children." She tilted her head back slightly, still resting her chin gently on the back of her hand. "Though you at least seem more apt to question such things than most Lightbearers I've met. There may be hope for you." There was a shift of her shoulders which might have been a shrug. "But, who can say. Fate weaves its tapestry, and Lightbearers tear through it without regard for what they've wrought by doing so."

The Lightbearer thought about this, and what Captain Eso had said. "'Trouble follows, where Guardians go,'" she mused.

"My people live in a precarious balance here," the Queen explained. "We stand poised to finally end a conflict that has compromised our secrecy and cost us our safety. The Wolves are at our doorstep, and now you have been Risen here." She arched an eyebrow. "Do you understand how this destabilizes things here?"

She frowned. "I could help," she suggested.

"No." The Queen made a cutting gesture with her hand. "You will not. We do not require your assistance." She carried on regarding the Lightbearer with the same cool stare. "You were one of ours," she finally stated. "You served loyally. For this, we shall allow you to go in peace. The captain will take you back where you were found. You and your little ball should be able to repair a ship with little effort."

She sighed a little bit. She got the impression that this was the best she was going to get from the Queen of the Awoken. "Thank you, Your Grace." She paused, then looked up at her. "You recognize me by the uniform I'm wearing--"

"Yes," the Queen interrupted softly. "You will return it before you leave. We will give you some other clothes to wear."

"Yes, right, thank you. But you recognize me by the uniform," she went on, "and you said I was part of the Queensguard. So presumably you recognize me by more than just the uniform." She paused. "What was my name?"

The Queen was silent, regarding her still without a change of expression. The Lightbearer continued, "I'm not asking for my life story, I know that would probably be too much to ask, and you might not know all of it anyway, you're a monarch, you probably have too many things to keep track of to remember everything about everyone who serves you, but I'm not asking for a lot, I'm just asking for my name, I can figure out more from that--"

"You didn't talk this much before," the Queen remarked. "But that's to be expected when the Traveler decides to bring someone back. They're not the same as they were before." She tapped her fingers against the arm of her throne, and finally gave a microscopic nod. "You were Wahei Ohr. You were a member of our Queensguard, and were seconded to the Royal Armada before you died defending our people from the Wolves." She spread the fingers of her hand, lifting it as if shrugging. "And now you are a Lightbearer. As you said, trouble follows."

The Lightbearer nodded, but her thoughts had turned inward. "Wahei Ohr..." she murmured. It sounded right, and it resonated with the fragments she saw in the crystalline boundary in her mind. Nothing new materialized out of it, but... She stopped herself before she went down that mental pathway. Reborn without memory, she could be told a complete lie and never know it was a falsehood, but if she thought too much about such matters, then she would spend her entire new existence constantly paranoid about truth and the lack thereof. She opted for trust.

Wahei bowed slightly. "Thank you, Your Grace."

* * *

"She let you go?" It was a short while later, as she changed into the [new set of clothes](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/06/5f/6c065fe0cd2129a8b971eb68b4bfac3a.jpg) that the Queen had provided. They weren't much and fairly plain. It was more lightly armored than what she'd woken up wearing, drab in various shades of brown, with a low-collared vest and a truncated, sleeveless robe. There was even a helmet provided. Her Ghost was fussing about her as she adjusted everything, questioning her about what happened.

"She doesn't want me to stick around," Wahei told him. "Once we're done here, she'll let us fix up one of those ships we found near where you found me, and then go." She sighed a little bit as she tried to buff a smudge off the helmet. Something occurred to her, and she said, "She told me my name was Wahei Ohr."

The Ghost was quiet for a moment. "Guardians aren't supposed to look into their past lives. Not all of them were the best people before they were chosen by the Traveler."

"I was a part of the Queensguard." She shrugged. "I'd like to know more, but I get the impression that I was lucky to get that much." She sighed. "How am I supposed to know who I am now if I don't know who I was before? Who you are is determined by your past experiences, and without any of that knowledge, I feel just... adrift, you know? Like there's this gaping nothingness and it's left me in a bewilderment."

"Who you were doesn't matter anymore," the Ghost fluttered the facets of his shell, and she got the impression that this was like a shrug. "You can choose who you want to be. We Ghosts are just here to help guide you and advise you."

Wahei regarded the floating ball. "An advisor, huh?" She clipped the belt around her robe and ran her fingers over the smooth-shaved side of her head. "Do you have a name?"

"No," he admitted. "Some of us do pick up names while we're looking, but I'm not one of them."

She smiled. "Well, if you're gonna be an advisor, I think I'll call you Vizier." The Ghost paused, facets twitching faintly, looking at her, almost thoughtfully. "It means 'advisor,' after all."

"I think I like it," Vizier agreed. She got an impression that he would smile if he could.

"I know we just met," Wahei said as they stepped out of the changing room, "but I think we'll get along just fine." She regarded the figure of Captain Eso, who stood with arms folded as he waited for them. She sighed. "I just wish they'd let me help them."

Vizier made a sighing sound as well. "I know what you mean, but it's ultimately their decision. Even the Guardians back in the City leave the Reef Awoken be." He looked to her. "But if you want to help protect people, the City can always use another Guardian."

* * *

"Clark, have you seen Ikora? I've checked the usual places, but she doesn't seem to be in the Tower." Clark 55-30 turned his optics from the tablet to face the Warlock who had just entered.

"I believe Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey is in the Traveler's Garden in the City, Warlock Aunor Mahal." Clark 55-30's voice was a modulated tenor, generally bright and helpful, as most clerical frames tended to be.

"Thank you," Aunor nodded, then paused and looked to the other person in the small meeting room. "Oh! You're doing intake on a new Light, Clark?" Without waiting for the frame to respond, Aunor raised a hand in greeting. "Welcome to the City, Guardian. My name is Aunor Mahal, Warlock of the Praxic Order."

The Awoken gave her a smile. "Hello! I'm Wahei Ohr."

"Interesting name," the Praxic Warlock commented. "Why'd you choose it?"

Wahei's brow furrowed slightly. "I didn't. It's my _name_ ," she said.

Aunor made a little thoughtful noise. "It's not unheard of for freshly Risen Lights to find something nearby that tells them their name," she mused aloud, thinking of Ana Bray, or the Laughing Titan, Sergei Bolvan. Bray had found an ID badge with her face on it, and Sergei had been wearing a set of dog-tags.

Then Wahei shook her head. "No, I mean, when I was rezzed in Reef, they recognized the armor I'd been wearing. They made me return it and gave me these clothes to wear," she added, plucking at her vest, "and when I asked if they remembered who I was, they told me my name was Wahei Ohr and I'd been a member of the Queensguard before ... well, before I died the first time, I guess."

Aunor went quiet for several moments, as Clark 55-30 looked from one Warlock to another, merely waiting for them to finish talking so he could continue the routine but necessary paperwork. Finally, the Praxic said, "Guardians aren't supposed to look into their past." There was a faintly accusatory tone to her words.

The newer Warlock shrugged at that. "Vizier didn't tell me that until after I'd already found out. I don't really see what the harm is, in asking questions. From what Vizier says, that's what Warlocks do, and I guess I'm a Warlock now, though I don't really know what that means, exactly, apart from we ask questions and study things, which sounds kind of interesting, to tell the truth--"

"Curiosity, in and of itself, isn't an issue, exactly," Aunor interrupted. "But some questions cross boundaries, and the answers to those kinds of questions are not safe to learn."

Wahei gave a little snort. "Knowledge, in and of itself, isn't dangerous. I'd argue it's what one _does_ with said knowledge that's the danger. And anyway, how is one supposed to know whether the knowledge poses a danger if one does not learn it? If you just accept whatever anyone tells you is the truth without testing it, then they could lie to you and you'd never know otherwise."

Again, there was a silence that went on for several moments. Aunor pressed her lips together. "Hm. I can see you're a Guardian who thinks ... carefully about things." Then she smiled. Or at least turned the corners of her mouth upwards slightly. "You're a bright young Warlock that's going to have a lot of eyes on you in times to come."

Wahei smiled back. "Thank you."

"I did not wish to interrupt," Clark 55-30 finally said, "but we still have work to do before Guardian Wahei Ohr is finished here."

"Of course," Aunor nodded. "Apologies for the interruption, Clark. Good day to you, Wahei Ohr." She left, reflecting on what she'd seen of this new Light. Fresh out of the grave, and she had already broken a taboo, and proved willing to ask questions that most preferred to leave unasked. And where such Lightbearers were concerned, trouble followed.


	11. Account of an Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Praxic Warlock Aunor Mahal - visits the _Glykon_ \- encounters Wahei - hears whispers - confronts a Dredgen - asserts they don't belong here...

_You shouldn't stick around. Only a matter of time before one of the Praxics turns up."_

_"Let them come. They won't find me."_

_"Just get in, get the Crown, and get out."_

_"That's the plan."_

~*~*~*~*~*~

This place stank of death. Death and something worse. It hung in the air, even where there was no air in which to hang.

The Warlock Aunor Mahal frowned beneath her helmet. The ship was a tomb. Those who had served on it had died, and they had been ugly deaths. She wasn't surprised, based on the reports she had received from Osiris. The experiments conducted here had been profane, all to satisfy the demands of a deranged egomaniac, dabbling in sorceries to focus upon the anomaly where Mars once sat. Dark things had been done here, in service of Dark-minded people, and a Guardian had been lost because the Darkness had subverted that Guardian's Ghost.

She wanted that Ghost, so they could find out what had convinced them to abandon their Guardian. There was also a Dark artifact here, if the reports were accurate, one that had been developed by the Hive to take control of whomever wore it. If nothing else, this needed to be secured before someone else got their hands on it.

"Main landing stage looks clear," she reported over the comm. "How are things looking from outside?"

_"There's still too much interference to transmat to the bridge,"_ Ferris Char replied. _"We shouldn't linger. We don't belong here."  
_

"Try to keep a bead on my signal," Aunor said, as she checked her hand cannon and shotgun. "I might need to get pulled out."

_"I'll do my best. Rhodes, how do things look on your end?"_

The Exo Praxic Warlock also came over the comms. _"Your proxy readings are coming through clear, Char."_

"Sounds good, then," Aunor squared her shoulders and went to the lever for the hatch. The Cabal oil had crusted in the vacuum, but it did finally move, and the hatch opened for her, the interior poorly illuminated by emergency lighting. The air within seemed thick with dust, but it only took a glance around to remind her that this was actually evidence of the fungal growth filling the space with spores. "Bighari, the seal on my helmet's secure, right?"

"Yes, it is."

"Good. Last thing I want is to be breathing in this stuff." Aunor drew her Quitclaim and proceeded forward. "Map us a route to the Crown."

~*~*~*~*~*~

_"Bad news. The Praxics are here."_

_"Who'd they send?"_

_"Looks like Char's standing watch outside. ...it's Mahal."_

_"Dammit!"_

_"The cloak's holding. They don't know we're here. Hurry up and get the Crown."_

_"I will. Mahal can't get to me before I get the Crown. The_ Glykon _will take care of her. She doesn't belong here."_

~*~*~*~*~*~

_Char was right,_ Aunor reflected later. _We don't belong here._

Navigating the hulk of the _Glykon_ had proven more difficult than either she or Bahaghari had expected. Even after the initial forays into the derelict Cabal ship, which had left many hatches open, there was still no direct route to the laboratories or the room where the deposed Emperor's communion had taken place. The infestation of Scorn on the ship hadn't been entirely cleansed, either, as she could hear them scuttling about, screeching and hunting for her.

Aunor sat up as after Bahaghari rezzed her after a panel had collapsed, sending her down what appeared to be a maintenance shaft. She peered into the gloom of some cargo hold, picking her way past the corpses of dead Scorn and trod through puddles of congealed Dark Ether. "Char, can you see me on your scans?"

_"Barely,"_ the Praxic Titan's voice was just audible beneath the static. _"Too mu--(kzzzkh)--ference. Recom--(khzzktk)--thdraw."_

"Might be best," she agreed. "Pull me out."

_"Can't. (ktkzhh)--ansmat not wor--(hhzzzkht)--ake way bac--(tkhtzzzh)--angar."_

"Copy. Will try to get to the hangar." Aunor glanced to her Ghost. "Bighari, can you map a route there?"

"I'll do my best. This is a Cabal Carrier, but the internal layout isn't matching up to the intel we have." Bahaghari glanced at her. "Someone did some renovating, either the Loyalists or... something else."

**_the light has failed you._ **

Aunor whirled around, racking her shotgun at the whispering voice. Bahaghari flinched at the movement, and spun to face that direction, shining light in that direction. "What is it?" the Ghost asked in hushed tones.

"Someone was whispering," Aunor hissed back. "Show yourself!" she shouted into the gloom. There was no answer. She rose from her crouch, lowering her shotgun, squinting past the spore particles in the air. "I know I heard someone."

_**it was never yours to have.** _

She snapped her shotgun up again, calling out again. "Who's there? I know you're there!"

Silence answered her. Then a voice called back, from a different direction in the hold, "Can we agree to first put our weapons down?" It was a different voice too, female. "We both might be Guardians, but getting shot still stings."

The Praxic had to concede that point. "Lowering my gun. Keep your hands empty when you step out."

The other gave a scoff. "I'm not that stupid. But my finger is not on the trigger. For the moment."

Aunor knew that voice. She narrowed her eyes again. "Ohr?"

The Awoken in question, Wahei Ohr, slowly stepped into view, hands raised, pointedly keeping her finger away from the trigger of her Waking Vigil. "Mahal."

The two Warlocks stared at one another for a moment. Neither made an immediate move, but finally Aunor asked the question, "Why are you here, Ohr?"

"Same reason you are, I would assume. To find the Crown." Wahei's helmeted gaze turned, as if to take in the aftermath of the carnage that surrounded them. "Albeit for a different reason than you."

Aunor's teeth ground together. "Haven't you delved deep enough in Darkness?"

Wahei sighed. "Look, we are, the both of us, temporarily trapped here on this ship, yes?" With her free hand, she gestured about them. "The anomaly, the Darkness on this ship, it's all blocking transmat. Backtracking to the hangar will get you out of here."

"You mean 'us' out of here." Aunor smirked to see the quizzical tilt of the other's head. "I'm not leaving here without you in custody."

Wahei just stared at her before replying, "Yes. You are." Then she paused, glancing downward a moment. "Wait." She reached down with her free hand into one of the pockets on her belt, drawing out a familiar scrimshawed waxen figure. The eyes of the Traitor's Die were glowing with a cold, pale light, and the artifact tumbled on her palm of its own accord. Wahei cursed as she closed her fingers around it, shoving it back in her pocket. "Eyes up!" she shouted, as she whirled around.

Aunor nearly opened fire with her shotgun, but then she saw the vapors rising off of the congealed puddles around them. Dark Ether flowed, slithering into the corpses of the Scorn around them, the bodies rising back to their feet with sibilant growls and snarls. The Praxic hurled a whirling set of fireballs into a group of the Scorn, immolating them where they stood, as Wahei fired her hand cannon with one hand, the other catching a charging Scorn by the throat. Voidglow flashed as the creature withered. The Awoken dropped it before flinging a vortex grenade into the gaping maw of a chieftain.

It was the work of only a few moments to put them all down again, at which point both Warlocks snapped their weapons toward each other. "How did you know that was going to happen?" Aunor demanded.

"I've been spending the last several months studying the Die," Wahei shook her head. "That, along with the information in Toland's last book, has shown me a number of useful things." She patted the pocket. "It's very reactive in places where the Darkness holds sway. It's already given me forewarning a few times since I came on board this ship."

Aunor looked her over, noting said book's absence. "Where is the _Umbranomicon_?"

"The book is even more reactive," Wahei said. "Bringing it aboard the _Glykon_ would have been monumentally stupid." She paused, glancing away, then added, "Last thing I want is whatever still lurks on this ship to have it as a conduit."

"Osiris' team already killed the Locus," Aunor reminded her.

"And those Scorn we just killed were already dead when we both walked in here," Wahei retorted. "And that didn't stop them from getting back up again." She looked at the Praxic. "And anyway, the Locus wasn't alive when it was put down. It was just being worn by something else like a cheap suit."

"How do you know this?"

"Because it's still whispering." Wahei nodded to her. "You heard it before, didn't you?"

Aunor paused. "Is that what that was?"

"Yes. I've been hearing it too." There was a bite of venom in her voice when she added, "Taunting, usually." And then, the venom drained away, with a faint tremolo of trauma. "Including with voices that already give me nightmares."

_**so confident you're in the right. what will you do when you're wrong?** _

Wahei's gaze snapped back to her when she flinched. "Whose voices is it using against you?"

Aunor glared at her, but after a moment, she answered, "A Dredgen we had to put down once. One of Bog's cadre."

The Awoken paused, as if mentally going through a list. "Damon Geist?" She shrugged when Aunor started. "You're not the only one who knows things. You and the Order might have hunted down a number of his cadre, but only one or two have actually been RTL."

Aunor nodded slowly. "Before him, it was Stragka. The Legion Valus that served as warden for a number of captives in the City during the Red War." She took a deep breath. "During the Vanguard's counter-offensive, I was part of a team that went to try to free the captives."

Wahei put her hand cannon away as she turned to regard the cargo hold. "Yes. Mine have been whispers from Lightloss, too. Tasarakh, usually. Sometimes it tries to get to me by using Sergei's voice." She paused, then shivered. "And sometimes it's Oryx."

Aunor Mahal prided herself on not letting fear get to her. But the mention of the Taken King made her blood go cold. "What does it say?"

"It's not important," Wahei's voice was curt. "The Taken King is dead. And he's not coming back. Not while I'm alive." She looked back to the Praxic. "This way. This corridor should get us closer to either the hangar, or to the bridge."

~*~*~*~*~*~

_"Bad news. Mahal's not alone."_

_"Did Char join her?"_

_"No. Someone else is on the_ Glykon _with her. Can't tell who."_

_"...hm."_

_"What are you going to do?"_

_"Give them a little greeting."_

_"Bad idea."_

_"I've got what we came for, anyway. This is just for a lark."_

~*~*~*~*~*~

The strange fungal growth was everywhere. In some places, the fronds had sprouted, drifting gently in the air. Both Warlocks gave it a wide berth as they passed. More than once, Aunor thought she saw the vaporous flow of Dark Ether flicker past along interconnecting corridors or tunnels, but there didn't seem to be any other Scorn manifesting yet.

But this wasn't to say that there weren't other things stalking them.

_**i'm not the only one wearing shackles here.** _

Aunor tried to ignore the voice of Damon Geist as it whispered to her. The Hunter also known as Dredgen Teufel had refused to go quietly-- like most Dredgens did-- and even after they'd rezzed him to interrogate them, he had never once shown remorse for the things he'd done. He'd refused to be redeemed.

_**to be redeemed, you have to admit fault. i'm at peace with what i've done. are you?** _

She tried to put Geist out of her mind as she and Wahei continued making their way through the _Glykon_. The Praxic thought about what Wahei had said earlier about her reason for being here. "I'm here to secure the Crown and make sure it's buried somewhere deep, where no one will meddle with it. But you're here to study it, aren't you?" Wahei said nothing, and Aunor shook her head. "I'd have thought that Calus had let you study it to your heart's content. I'm surprised he didn't invite you aboard the ship for this whole communion."

"He did," the Awoken replied. "I didn't accept." She looked over her shoulder. "My interest in it was down to studying more Hive artifacts and how the Witch had programmed it. I suspect that the Crown was only one thing that the Witch has crafted to try to enslave people. I needed to know how it worked so I knew what to look out for in the future."

They made their way through what had been a barrack room, now encrusted with fungus and filled with fronds. Aunor cast sunfire among them to burn a path through. Wahei continued, "But my studies of the Crown gave me more insight into how Dark artifacts function, and it was included in my report. I know you read the one I gave the Vanguard about it. Well, I gave a copy to Calus, also." She raised her hands as Aunor glared at her. "He had allowed me access to it, played host even, while I stayed on the _Leviathan_ to study it. I couldn't _not_ give him a report. Not without possibly turning him hostile to other Guardians."

Aunor snarled. "And you don't see how dangerous it was, leaving that knowledge in the hands of a madman like him?"

"Of _course_ I see it!" Wahei snapped back. "Why do you think I'm here?! I feel responsible for what happened here!" She looked at the bulks of the Cabal corpses, frozen in agony in cocoons of fetid mycological growth. "I don't care what might have happened to Calus. But these Loyalists? Katabasis? They didn't deserve to go out like this."

Aunor nodded slowly. "I'm surprised. You actually _do_ care."

Wahei's hand cannon was abruptly in her face, hammer cocked. Without turning, the Awoken spoke, her voice cold. "If you ever suggest that I'm a heartless monster again, Mahal, you won't have time to blink before I kill you and drop your Ghost down the Martian anomaly."

The Praxic kept her hands raised, watching her carefully, but evidently Wahei considered her point made and put her hand cannon away as she led the way out of the barracks. She wanted to take her at her word, but too many of the tainted Guardians she had captured had expressed the same conviction, the absolute belief that what they were doing was justified or necessary.

_**the only thing that makes me different from you is you call yourself 'praxic' while i call myself 'dredgen.'** _

Geist had been wrong, of course, she reminded herself. The Praxic Order did not make a habit of torturing people, of killing for sport or for a lark, of spreading misery and despair, like Dredgen Bog and his cadre had. Shadows of Yor of the worst stripe, Bog's faction had thus far evaded the Man with the Golden Gun and most of them had escaped the Praxic dragnet that had looked for them. The Praxics were holding the line against the corruption of the Dark, to keep the Light shining bright. No matter what airs Bog, Teufel, or the rest of them put on, they were _not_ the same as the Praxics.

A capable person with the strength of conviction could move mountains. A capable Lightbearer with the strength of conviction could _reshape_ those mountains.

"Keep up," Wahei called ahead of her. "We really don't want to get separated in here."

~*~*~*~*~*~

_"Sitrep?"_

_"Cloak's holding. Char still doesn't know we're here."_

_"And Mahal?"_

_"She and the other one are almost to the bridge."_

_"Good."_

~*~*~*~*~*~

_**if you don't look into the dark, you'll never see the monsters coming.** _

Aunor ignored the whispering as they passed into the boiler room. Ash and more congealed Dark Ether was smeared all over the place. As they stepped on the deck plating, she froze when she heard the plodding step in the lower level of the room. Chains rattled and something heavy dragged along the deck as something growled. Wahei held up a hand, then raised a finger to her helmet in a shushing gesture.

_**come out, lightbearer! i can smell your mind!** _

She tensed to hear a new voice from the whispers. Like Stragka's earlier, it dated back to the Red War. One of the Valus' Psions, Ptotec, had tracked her down to capture her, wanting to study what made Lightbearers different physiologically from baseline humans. It had been a tense and terrifying week, trying to stay ahead of Ptotec's hunt.

Aunor looked at the floor, imagining the hulk of the creature beneath them as it prowled, the growl of its breath audible. Osiris' team had managed to put it down, but it sounded like it had been reanimated, like the other Scorn had been. Aunor slowly drew her hand cannon, but Wahei's head snapped back to her, and she froze.

The other Warlock's hand went into another pocket on her belt, drawing out a long length of leather cord, knotted at irregular intervals and festooned with hand-carved beads of various materials. For a moment, Aunor thought it was some kind of rosary, but there only a few beads here and there on it. Wahei took out the Traitor's Die and hooked it onto the cord, which she began to wind around the fingers of either hand, twisting and shaping the thing like a strange cat's cradle. She could hear Wahei muttering under her breath.

The eyes of the Die had that same cold, pale glow within that Aunor had seen earlier. Several of the beads began to glow in a similar fashion, while others shimmered with the purple glow of the Void. Wahei finally hissed some final syllable, and let the cat's cradle come apart. The Die swung on the end, before snapping the cord taught as its beak thrust toward the deck plating, as if magnetized. The entire cord and beads now shone with a combination of the cold glow and the Void.

The Awoken took a deep breath, clenching the charged cord in one fist, as she then summoned forth a staff made of ice, which she slammed down into the deck. Aunor felt a wave of energy pass over her, through the boiler room, and then the growling from beneath them abruptly ceased. Wahei sagged briefly, leaving the staff where it was, but wrapped the strange rosary around her fist, the Traitor's Die hanging over the back of her hand. "Let's go, and hurry," she suggested. "That'll hold it, but we shouldn't linger."

"How did you do that?" Aunor asked, staring at the Penumbral Staff. She was familiar with how Stasis worked, of course, but this was some usage that was new to her.

"With difficulty," Wahei replied, her voice strained. "Explaining would take too long, and we don't have time right now. Let's move."

They moved down to the lower level, where Aunor saw the towering, twisted hulk of a mutated Scorn Ravager. It was rimed with ice and Void Light shimmered within the crystals. Beneath the ice, she could see the Dark fungus sprouting from the boils and pustules of the Scorn flesh, and tiny fronds protruding from its jaw. As she looked, though, she saw its eyes track toward her beneath the covering. Wahei jogged toward the door, calling back, "Not far to the bridge!"

_**run all you want, little mouse. you will just die tired.** _

She pushed Ptotec's whisper out of her head as she followed Wahei, emerging into the _Glykon_ 's bridge, where the festering corpse of Katabasis still hung from the ceiling, strung up by long coils of mycological matter, as fronds and pustules grew from beneath the deceased Hunter's armor. Aunor grimaced to see it. Osiris' team hadn't been able to cut through those coils to recover the body, and she made a mental note to come back with a larger team to do so. _No one gets left behind._

Then she spotted a glint high up in the room, and she shouted out, "Get down!" Without waiting, she pushed Wahei to the floor as she hurled a salvo of fire toward the shape she'd spotted, just as there was a crack of a linear fusion rifle. A bolt of baleful energies lanced past her, vaporizing a chunk off a pile of Castellum Gold behind her. Aunor hauled Wahei to her feet as she dragged them behind cover.

"Praxic Mahal," a voice called out, a harshly-accented baritone. She recognized that voice. "You don't belong here."

"Afa Kashaf," she called back, while wishing she'd brought a sniper rifle. "Same thing could be said about you."

"I am more at home here than you," the rogue Hunter retorted. "There is no Light here."

Beside her, Wahei was taking a deep breath, still clearly strained from whatever arcane rite she had performed on the mutated Ravager. She lifted her head, turning her head away from Aunor as she called out herself, "Dredgen Bog. You delve into depths you cannot fathom."

"Who's that with you, Mahal?" Kashaf laughed. "Another Light shackled by Praxic ideology?"

"My name," the Awoken stated, her voice carrying, "is Wahei Ohr."

There was a pause, and then the Dredgen's LFR fired again, punching a hole through the panel they'd hidden behind.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_"Get me out of here. NOW!"_

_"What's happening?"_

_"Mahal's the least of our problems. Ohr is here."_

_"...bad news. I can't transmat you."_

_"What?!"_

_"Give me a minute! I gotta recalibrate!"_

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I take it you two have met?" Aunor asked dryly as Wahei glanced at the hole next to her head.

"I think my reputation precedes me." Wahei sighed and considered. "I don't have my scout rifle. Didn't think I'd need it in the corridors of a derelict."

Aunor considered her own options. "You could Nova him--"

"Most of my Light is tied up in keeping that thing back there contained." Wahei shook her head. "It's not happy about that. If I let it go, it'll come for me."

The Praxic hummed thoughtfully. "How long do you think before it gets here?"

"Only a minute or so. The _Glykon_ belongs to it, it will be able to get here faster than we did."

Aunor nodded. "Bahaghari, stay out of sight. I'll try to draw his fire and distract him." She looked to her. "If we go in separate directions, he can't track us both. His Longbore can't fire that quickly."

Wahei looked at her, jerking her head out of the way of another LFR shot that punched through their cover. "I have a different plan."

The Praxic listened as Wahei explained it, then muttered, "The timing will be tight. And there's no guarantee of success."

"Better odds than if we don't try it." She looked at Aunor, who finally nodded in agreement. The Awoken lifted up the pseudo-rosary and pulled the Traitor's Die off the cord. The strange glow that had suffused the beads winked out, and Wahei let out a breath, as if a weight had just been removed. Aunor heard a not-too-distant roaring. Then a whisper bellowed in her head with Ptotec's stolen voice.

_**this is my hunting ground, little mouse! tallyho!** _

Both Guardians dashed out from their cover, and Aunor heard Bog cursing, his Longbore firing first at her, then at Wahei. The Voidwalker suddenly Blinked out of view, reappearing up higher in the space, peppering the Dredgen's perch with fire from her hand cannon. A frozen kama came hurtling toward her, but she sheathed her forearm in ice and parried it aside. He spun around, tossing down an Icewall grenade to shield himself from another fireball from Aunor.

Kashaf leapt down from his perch, shouting, "Vergift, get me out of here!" Frost spread out from him as he summoned forth two more ice-kamas, flinging one toward Aunor, raising his arm to fling the other to Wahei, but he paused as the hatch to the bridge was smashed open by a flaming censer. The giant Ravager had to bend nearly double, crumpling the hatch's frame to fit through it. It rose to its feet, roaring, swinging the censer around and slamming it down toward the Dredgen.

Aunor stifled a curse, however, as she saw him vanish in a transmat field a split second before impact. The Scorn monstrosity appeared to realize this also, snarling, then looking at the remaining two Guardians. It began to spin the censer again, but Aunor drew forth her Dawnblade, casting waves of cleansing fire down on the fungus-encrusted giant. It bellowed in agony and rage, swinging the censer around toward her soaring form.

But that was when Wahei Blinked above its head, plunging a sword into the base of its neck. It seized up, but the blade seemed to have caught in the mycological crust. It roared again, then crumpled when she delivered a Void-empowered thrust of her palm into the pommel, driving it into its spine. She Blinked backward, then fired a Nova Bomb into its skull. It sagged over, the deck rumbling from its death throes.

The two Warlocks both sagged and caught their breath. Aunor looked at it. "Is it dead?"

"For now," Wahei shrugged. "You'd have to purge every wisp of Dark Ether on the ship, and even then, I'm not sure if that would be enough." She pulled out the Traitor's Die and rolled it on a console. She considered the runes that showed after, then said, "But the Dark energies at play are quiescent for the time being. At least until our Light leaves the _Glykon_."

The Praxic nodded, then leveled her hand cannon at her. "Good. Now. Put your weapons down, Ohr."

There was a pause, and with no great hurry, the Awoken collected the Die and put it back in her pouch. The pseudo-rosary was still clutched in her other fist, and she began to roll it through her fingers, her thumb rubbing over the beads as they passed through. "Are we really doing this, Mahal?"

"You stole a proscribed book and artifact from the Praxic Vault. The book alone is a worry." Aunor shook her head. "The _Umbranomicon_ is locked up for a _reason,_ and you know that."

Wahei nodded thoughtfully, still running the rosary through her fingers. "You're referring to its alleged curse."

"There's nothing alleged about it. Everyone who has tried to study that book has gone mad."

"Samita Sadihj, I'll grant you," the Awoken conceded. "But Afa Kashaf was already delving in Darkness before he glimpsed what was in the book." She gave Aunor a level look. "I am aware of the risks. And I'm taking precautions."

"Not good enough. You will return what you stole."

Wahei tilted her head. "Hm. No, I don't think I will." She suddenly Blinked out of view, and before Aunor could turn, she felt the palm slam into her back, ice spreading rapidly from the point of contact. The Praxic Warlock tried to bring her gun around, but her limbs locked into place as the freeze overtook them, and her Light was still depleted after casting it against the Scorn beast. Her head was left free, and Wahei stepped back into view. "Understand, Mahal, I know why you do what you do. I commend you for it. While most Guardians that have begun using Stasis still have the City's-- mankind's interests at heart, it's a dangerous line to walk. We need people like you to keep watch for corruption."

She spun the rosary in her hand, and there was a pulse of energy. Bahaghari abruptly appeared, and looked alarmed. Wahei just smiled at the Ghost. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you. All I ask is that you give me a chance to check something before you work on breaking your Guardian out." She glanced to one side. "Vizier?" Her own Ghost appeared beside her. "Keep your eye on them." The Awoken's Ghost bobbed a nod in the air as the Warlock stepped away.

Aunor, teeth chattering, managed to croak out, "What... is she doing?"

"Checking the Crown," Vizier replied. "Dredgen Bog was here for a while before we were. Neither of us likes the idea that he somehow gleaned something from it--"

Wahei suddenly reappeared next to him. "Viz, we need to go. Bog has the plating we were looking for." She glanced at Aunor. "You should be able to free yourself soon. I urge you to leave as soon as you can. This place isn't safe to stay in." She looked toward the still-smoking hulk of the Scorn giant. "It hates us. We don't belong here."

Vizier flitted to her side, while she wound the rosary cord into another cat's cradle, the beads glowing pale and cold. Behind her, a portal opened, shining darkly and glittering with starlight. "Until next time, Mahal. Be brave, stay vigilant. And don't follow me." She swept through the portal, which closed behind her.

Moments later, the ice finally cracked, and Aunor caught herself on a console. Bahaghari went to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," she assured her Ghost. She tapped into her comm. "Char, are you still there?"

_"I am. What happened in there? The interference seems to have gone away. I thought I saw someone else in there with you."_

_**you are alone. you will die alone.** _

Aunor pushed aside the whisper of Stragka. "Not anymore. They're gone. I'll explain later. But before we come back, we need to have more people." Like Wahei, she considered the carcass of the Scorn. "This place isn't safe."

_"Copy that. Transmatting you out."_

As she felt the field claim her, she murmured, "We don't belong here."

~*~*~*~*~*~

TYPE: Statement

DESCRIPTION: Addendum to Debrief AAR-GLK-MA-2021-02

AUTHOR: AUN-326

ASSOCIATIONS: Cabal; Calus, Emperor; Darkness; Glykon Volatus; Kashaf, Afa [AKA Bog, Dredgen]; Ohr, Wahei [POI #0247]; Scorn; Vergift, Dredgen

As a follow up to my report of my investigation to the Cabal carrier _Glykon Volatus_ , I have some new observations concerning POI #0247.

I have long advocated continuous monitoring of her, since her return to the City following the Red War. The behavior she has exhibited since then has suggested a form of PTSD, usually manifesting as a pathological focus on violence against the Hive and especially those who are seen as "aberrant" compared to the rest of their race. (cf. Nokris, Savathûn) Her repeated defiance against conventionally-held safety procedures when studying Hive artifacts and texts still alarm me, but she does seem to have maintained a sort of level-headedness without the monomania shown by others. (i.e. Eris Morn)

Ohr's continued possession of the _Umbranomicon_ and Traitor's Die must still be addressed, and she must suffer the consequences for her part in the theft of the same, but for the time being, I believe she can be trusted to have mankind's best interests at heart. Having said that, great care must be taken to be sure that she is not crossing that last line onto the colloquial "Sorrow's Road," or something like it.

Trust, but verify, you might say.

At the moment, her interests and the Praxic Order's coincide, as Ohr is also pursuing Dredgen Bog and his cadre, after they stole something from Calus' modifications made to the Crown of Sorrow. I doubt she will be amenable to a long-term collaboration, but it is my recommendation that we rescind the "arrest on sight" order for her.


	12. Transcript of Another Twilight Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Wahei - meets with a renegade - discusses sorrows - forges an alliance...

TYPE: Transcription

DESCRIPTION: Conversation between persons of interest

PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter [u.1]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247)

ASSOCIATIONS: Black Fleet; Bog, Dredgen [AKA Kashaf, Afa]; Cabal; Calus, Emperor; Cull, Dredgen [AKA Sol, Callum]; Darkness; Glykon Volatus; Hive; Mahal, Aunor; Malphur, Shin; Morn, Eris; Ohr, Wahei; Oryx; Praxic Order; Ruin, Dredgen [AKA Ainu, Hadil]; Salvation, Shadows of; Savathûn; Scorn; Sorrow, Crown of; Teufel, Dredgen [AKA Geist, Damon]; Thorn; Toland; Touch of Malice; Umbranomicon; Vergift, Dredgen [AKA Magda-9]; WoS; Xivu Arath; Yor, Shadows of

//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//

//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//

[sound of campfire crackling, faint static of paracausal radiation]

[pause]

[sound of leather rustling, gun cocking]

[u.1] Show yourself. Hands up and empty, if you value your Light.

[sound of footsteps approaching]

[WO] Hunter.

[u.1] Wahei Ohr.

[WO] I've come to ask for your help.

[u.1] Crossed that line, have you?

[WO] No. At least, I'm confident I haven't, but Vizier monitors me carefully. He'd warn me if I had.

[u.1] [grunts] How did you find me?

[WO] You're not the only one good at finding people. Not that you made it easy.

[u.1] [grunts] That was intentional. I'm retired.

[WO] So I heard. The Hero of the Red War is meant to be your successor.

[u.1] That's the hope.

[WO] Having them be the symbol of that hope and everything is all well and good, but we both know you're not retired.

[u.1] That so?

[WO] It wasn't that long ago you came looking for me because you thought I'd gone to the Dark.

[u.1] Still not convinced you haven't.

[WO] Well, what about if I told you about some Lightbearers who HAVE gone to the Dark?

[pause]

[u.1] I'm listening.

[WO] You familiar with a Hunter by the name of Afa Kashaf?

[u.1] Regret to say I am. One of Cull's inner circle. Still sticks in my craw that he slipped past me when I started hunting them down.

[WO] I have it on good authority that he once had possession of a certain book.

[pause]

[u.1] Why am I just now learning about this?

[WO] The Praxic Order doesn't like to advertise that a Dredgen has read one of the most dangerous compendiums in the system. From what I've heard, you and the Praxics don't exactly see eye to eye.

[u.1] To put it mildly.

[WO] I don't know how much of it he read before the Praxics recovered it, but I worry that he may have read up on some of Toland's research notes about infusing objects with Darkness.

[pause]

[u.1] You tellin' me that Dredgen Bog knows how to make Weapons of Sorrow?

[WO] If he doesn't, he knows enough that with his friends' knowledge, he could figure it out.

[u.1] Who're his friends?

[WO] Not sure of their 'Dred' names, but they're called Magda-9 and Hadil Ainu.

[pause]

[u.1] Dredgen Vergift and Dredgen Ruin. I've heard of them. Slipped into the shadows while I was hunting Cull. Them and their buddy Teufel.

[WO] Teufel got caught by the Praxics. He refused to be redeemed, so they had to put him down.

[u.1] Dredgens like Bog and his ilk must be put down. Especially if they're trying to forge Weapons of Sorrow.

[WO] Glad to hear it. Whatever you or the Praxics think about me, I refuse to allow Weapons of Sorrow to proliferate. It's already bad enough so many Guardians are running around with Thorn replicas.

[u.1] This, coming from a Guardian who owns that rifle that Eris Morn forged out of the Taken King's heart? You know if the Hive got their hands on it, they could resurrect him.

[WO] No one else knows where it is. As long as I leave it where it's hidden, it cannot feed, and will wither on the vine. It would become prohibitively expensive, in terms of tribute, for them to try to resurrect him.

[u.1] You sound awfully sure of that.

[WO] However twisted their affection for one another, Oryx's sisters would not waste tribute on reviving him, and he wouldn't be grateful for it.

[pause]

[u.1] Fine. I can start sniffing around to find Bog and his crew. Probably lurking around Hive spaces if they're planning to make Weapons of Sorrow.

[WO] They already have a panel of bone-chitin they stole off of the Glykon. I suspect he got his hands on some Scorn tissue and Dark Ether too.

[u.1] [grunts] I'll ask around the City foundries. Vergift might have some weaponsmithing knowledge to hand, but they might look into getting their hands on high-quality goods for their experiments.

[WO] I'll run down any Hive spaces they might be using. But we should also keep an eye on any place with a Black Fleet presence. Bog's read Toland's book, and might try to make a Weapon without bothering with Hive components.

[pause]

[the feed distorts with static from paracausal radiation]

[u.1] You're not in the clear yet, Ohr. But Bog's crew are the greater threat compared to you.

[WO] I understand. I'll be in touch.

[u.1] [pause] Luck, Ohr.

[WO] Good hunting, Malphur.

[the feed clears]

[sound of a hand cannon magazine being loaded]

[u.1] Time to go hunting again.


End file.
